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M ANOOG •DER-ALEXANIAN 































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COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr. 


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WHEN I WAS A BOY 
IN ARMENIA 


CHILDREN OF OTHER LANDS BOOKS 

Independent Volumes With Characteristic Illustrations 
and Cover Designs 12mo Cloth 

There are many books about the children of other countries, but 
no other group like this, with each volume written by one who has 
lived the foreign child life described, and learned from subsequent 
experience in this country how to tell it in a way attractive to Ameri¬ 
can children — and in fact to Americans of any age. 

WHEN I WAS A BOY IN CHINA, By Yan Phou Lee 
WHEN I WAS A GIRL IN ITALY, By Marietta Ambrosi 
WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN, By Sakae Shioya 
WHEN I WAS A BOY IN GREECE, By George Demetrios 
WHEN I WAS A BOY IN PALESTINE, By Mousa J. Kaleel 
WHEN I WAS A BOY IN BELGIUM, By Robert Jonckheere 
WHEN I WAS A BOY IN RUSSIA, By Vladimir Mokrievitch 
WHEN I WAS A BOY IN ROUMANIA, By Dr. J. S. Van Teslaar 
WHEN I WAS A GIRL IN HOLLAND, By Cornelia De Groot 
WHEN I WAS A GIRL IN MEXICO, By Mercedes Godoy 
WHEN I WAS A GIRL IN ICELAND, By Holmfridur Arnadottir 
WHEN I WAS A BOY IN PERSIA, By Youel B. Mirza 
WHEN I WAS A BOY IN SCOTLAND, By George McP. Hunter 
WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY, By John 0. Hall 
WHEN I WAS A GIRL IN SWITZERLAND, By S. Louise Patteson 
WHEN I WAS A BOY IN DENMARK, By H. Trolle-Steenstrup 
WHEN I WAS A BOY IN INDIA, By Satyananda Roy 
WHEN I WAS A BOY IN TURKEY, By Ahmed Sabri Bey 
WHEN I WAS A GIRL IN FRANCE, By Georgette Beuret 
WHEN I WAS A BOY IN ARMENIA, By Manoog Der Alexanian 
WHEN I WAS A GIRL IN SWEDEN, By Anna-Mia Hertzman 

LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. 

BOSTON 







Manoog der Alexanian. 




WHEN I WAS A BOY 
IN ARMENIA 


By 

MANOOG DER ALEXANIAN 


ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS 



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BOSTON 

LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. 















DS m 
• As 


Copyright, 1926, 
Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. 


All Rights Reserved 


When I Was a Boy In Armenia 


Printed in U. S. A. 


IHorvvodS ipress 
BERWICK' & SMITH CO. 
Norwood, Mass. 


APR-8'26 

©cuss * 622 

t 





This hook is modestly dedicated to my great 
Alma Mater , 

HARVARD , 

who guided me gently hy the hand through 
the field of Good Knowledge; and care¬ 
fully directed me to the sources of 

LIGHT , WISDOM , and TRUTH, 

and gave me New Life 




PREFACE 


“ When I Was a Boy In Armenia ” is 
a plain, sincere, and unvarnished history 
of my life in my native land. I unfold 
it before the reader, like a panorama, with 
its dark and its bright colors. I have been 
careful not to omit any event or incident 
in my boyhood that may be of interest to 
my readers.. I have described my child¬ 
hood experiences somewhat in detail, be¬ 
cause they are typical of the life of many 
Armenian boys of my generation. 

With great pleasure I express my grati¬ 
tude to my friend, Assistant Dean Bacon 
of Harvard College, for his valuable criti¬ 
cism and advice. 

I hope that the reader will find this book 
interesting and instructive. 

Manoog der Alexanian. 
Cambridge, Mass., 

January, 1926 . 


7 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

I. My Birthday and Name . 

PAGE 

13 

II. 

My Tragic Childhood 

16 

III. 

My School Days 

26 

IY. 

My Life and Education in a 
Monastery .... 

38 

Y. 

My Home and My Family 

59 

YI. 

The Infancy of an Armenian 
Child. 

-4 

CO 

YII. 

Weddings .... 

. 80 1 

YIII. 

Armenian Games and Sports . 

91 

I 

IX. 

Native Industries 

103 

X. 

Armenian Heroes and Heroines 

131 

XI. 

Armenian Bites and Ceremonies 

116 \ 

XII. 

XIII. 

Country and City 

Armenia. 

122 

134 

XIY. 

The Armenian Race, Language, 
and Religion 

147 

XY. 

My Coming to the United 
States of America . 

159 


9 






ILLUSTRATIONS 


Mauoog Der Alexanian 

Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

A Typical Armenian Village 

• • 

18 

A Group of Armenian Pupils 

• • 

34 

The Glory of Armenia 

• • 

58 

In Harvest Time 

• • 

72 

Armenian Girl .... 

• • 

90 

General Antranik 

• • 

100 

Armenian Peasant Women Churning Butter 

no 

Ploughing. 

• • 

122 

Armenian Shepherd . 

• • 

126 

The Lion of Daron 

• • 

146 

A Girl Soldier .... 

• • 

158 


ll 





WHEN I WAS A BOY 
IN ARMENIA 

CHAPTER I 

MY BIRTHDAY AND NAME 

I was born on the anniversary of the 
day when forty young men chose will¬ 
ingly to freeze to death in an icy pool 
for the sake of Christianity. This may 
seem preposterous to the minds of some 
modern young men, who are burning with 
the passion of practical, palpable com¬ 
forts of the flesh, or, in other words, love 
the luxuries of life, yet, as a matter of 
fact, it was not only highly possible but 
an actual occurrence even after the days 
when Christianity was young, in not so 
remote a past as the seventeenth century 
when young men and boys preferred the 
spiritual comforts and pleasures to worldly 
luxuries. 


13 


14 


WEEN I WAS A BOY 


The story of the “ Forty Heroic Young 
Martyrs ” concerns forty young Arme¬ 
nians who accepted Christianity. The 
heathen dignitaries, learning of this, ar¬ 
rested them and, in order to terrify, took 
them to an icy pool near a bath-house, 
there telling them, “ Either you turn to 
paganism and enjoy the warmth and com¬ 
fort of the bath-house, or be stripped of 
your clothes and thrown into the icy pool.” 
These forty young men, who were burn¬ 
ing with the “ passion of spiritual com¬ 
forts ” and the “ love of Christ ” chose 
the icy pool to the warm bath-house. 
Upon the defiance and disobedience of 
these forty young men, the indignant 
pagans stripped off their clothes, and ty¬ 
ing them together with a rope, threw them 
into the icy pool, where all of them froze 
to death. Their sacrifice for that in¬ 
domitable faith in Christ! 

The day on which these forty young 
martyrs met their death is kept holy by 
the Armenian church in commemoration 


IN ARMENIA 


15 


of their sacrifice, and called Kcirassoon 
Manoog, which means “ forty young men.” 

Having been born on this day, I was 
named Manoog, which means “ young.” 
My middle name is Der, which means Sir 
or Reverend; my surname is Alexanian. 
All Armenian surnames end in ian, which 
means “ belonging to.” For example, 
Alexanian means “ belonging to the 
Alexan family.” The ending ian is the 
earmark of all Armenian surnames. 


CHAPTER II 


MY TRAGIC CHILDHOOD 

Palou, my native city, in Greater Ar¬ 
menia, is built on the brink of the Moun¬ 
tain of Saint Mesrob. This mountain is 
so named because, according to our tradi¬ 
tion, it was here that Saint Mesrob, a 
learned Armenian priest in the fourth 
century a. d. secluded himself, and after 
“ long study and prayers ” invented the 
seven vowels of the Armenian alphabet. 
Adding twenty-nine consonants (bor¬ 
rowed from the Greek and Assvrian lan- 

•/ 

guages) gave the Armenians their alpha¬ 
bet, which contains now thirty-six letters. 

Up to this time, about 450 a. d., Ar¬ 
menians spoke a kind of Armenian lan¬ 
guage, yet did not have their own alpha¬ 
bet. After the discovery of the alphabet, 

the Bible was translated from the Greek 

16 


IN ARMENIA 


17 


original into Armenian by this same man, 
who was, by the way, also a learned scholar 
in Greek and Latin of the great Alexan¬ 
drian School, at Alexandria, Egypt—a 
colossal center of learning at the time. So 
for the first time, the existing Armenian 
language was reduced to writing. By the 
invention of the Armenian alphabet, a 
great many difficulties and inconveniences 
were removed, and the Armenian national 
pride elevated. For this reason, Ar¬ 
menians hold Saint Mesrob’s memory 
sacred in their hearts, and rightly revere 
him as a saint. 

Furthermore, my native city, Palou, 
was founded in a very curious and strange 
way. The place where the city stands to¬ 
day was once thickly covered with tufted 
cherry-trees {pal meaning “ cherry ”) of¬ 
fering a place of refuge to highwaymen 
and robbers, and in time it became very 
dangerous for travelers, situated as it was 
on the main road between two cities. A 
group of armed Armenians bravely at- 



18 


WHEN I A BOY 


tacked this shelter of thieves, and after a 
hard fight cleaned the place from its un¬ 
desirables. Then, establishing themselves 
there with their families, relatives, and 
friends, they laid the foundation of the city 
of Palou, which is noted for its command¬ 
ing location. 

In the fall of 1895 the Sultan of Tur¬ 
key, called “ The Great Assassin ” by that 
noted English statesman of the nineteenth 
century, Gladstone, sent sealed orders 
to the governors and mayors in the sec¬ 
tion of my native city to arm all the 
Turkish inhabitants with the intent to kill 
and rob. Armenians, as the only Chris¬ 
tians living there, were made the special 
object of this vicious attack. Some of 
them, however, knew of this secret order, 
and believing in its certainty, were pre¬ 
pared to defend themselves to the best of 
their ability. Having been forbidden to 
buy, keep, or carry arms of any sort, it was 
rather difficult for them to meet the Turks 
on even ground. 


i 



A Typical Armenian Village. 







IN ARMENIA 


19 


The attack came suddenly in October 
of that year, without warning or fair 
chance. Many Armenians did not know 
anything about the secret order; some of 
them did not even believe in its certainty 
and so were taken by surprise in their 
stores and killed unawares. Those, how¬ 
ever, who escaped did the best they could 
under existing circumstances, by defend¬ 
ing themselves from their flat housetops 
and hastily built stone walls. 

Just an hour before the attack, my 
father was feeding me bread and milk 
from a bowl. I did not know that this 
was his last meal! We heard firing of 
guns. My father took me quickly in his 
arms, and leaving the food on the table, 
rushed with me into the house. He ran 
with me through an opening made in the 
wall of sun-baked mud bricks, into our 
neighbor’s house, where he met other 
armed Armenians holding a conference. 
After speaking with them for a moment, 
he left the room and climbed the stairs to 


20 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


the top of the house. Just as he reached 
the roof of the house, a shower of bullets 
greeted him. He withdrew and waited. 
The shower of bullets ceased. He made 
another attempt; again he was held back 
by flying bullets. In a third attempt, 
however, he safely crossed over to the next 
roof. Here he jumped into a courtyard 
and, climbing some wooden stairs, all the 
while holding me and his gun tightly in 
his arms, he entered a large room where 
he found many women and children hud¬ 
dled together in fright. He had come here 
to protect them from the Turks, for the 
Turks have no chivalry and will lay hands 
even on women and children. 

As I was told when I grew up, each 
strong and able-bodied man was assigned 
a post to guard the women and children 
stationed at certain places, while others 
formed in groups to repulse the attack of 
the Turks. My father quieted the fear- 
stricken women and children, assuring 
them that he would defend them by fight- 


IN ARMENIA 21 

ing to the last drop of his blood and the 
limit of his strength. 

And he did. A little time had passed 
when a group of Turks, armed to the 
teeth, came rushing over the flat house¬ 
tops with swords and rifles in their hands, 
firing and shouting yells of death and ter¬ 
ror. They climbed the stairs to the room 
where we were. While they were on their 
way, my father quickly jumped up from 
his seat, took me in his arms, kissed me 
and said, “ Good-bye, my little child, I 
leave you to the care of God; I know He 
will be good to you, and take care of you.” 
Then swiftly grasping his revolver, he 
stood by the door, ready for action. 

I still remember those kindly and af¬ 
fectionate large brown eyes, his healthy 
cheeks, his blond moustache. His farewell 
is still ringing in my ears. I could not 
understand, and thought he was but go¬ 
ing away for a short while. Scarcely was 
he up and standing when the Turks be¬ 
gan to pound at the door from outside and 


22 


WEEN I WAS A BOY 


broke it open. My father was the only 
man to meet them. I still see, as if in a 
dream, the huge, black Turk, his big, 
black pupils distended until the whites of 
his eyes showed, as he first flashed his long 
sword, and my father took off his hat 
quickly and caught the sword with his left 
hand, pulling it away from the Turk, and 
thrusting it back at him. 

Soon firing began from both sides. My 
father fired his gun, swung his sword right 
and left, and pushed the Turks back. 
While the fight was going on, there came 
another group of armed Turks who fell 
upon my father, and soon he was in the 
thick of the fray. Firing and shouting 
increased. I saw many Turks drop to the 
floor, their eyes rolling in death-like agony, 
and lay prostrate before my eyes. 

When last I saw my father, his left arm 
was dangling from his shoulder, almost 
amputated. But he fought on single- 
handed with his revolver. He made a final 
and gallant thrust, his body riddled with 


IN ARMENIA 


23 


bullets. Then, exhausted, he fell to the 
ground, saying, “ Cowards! I’ll get you 
yet. Don’t dare touch the women and 
children! ” With these words on his lips, 
he passed away, a hero. 

Can you picture the scene in that 
room? Women crying for help and mercy, 
the Turks among them now, robbing and 
killing those who resisted. I saw many 
women grappling the Turks by the throat 
and fighting them with their hands and 
teeth. I can still hear the noise of the 
guns—bing-bang, bing-bang—can still 
see the women falling on the ground with 
bullets in their bodies; others being 
mangled now on my left, now on my 
right. 

And in all this horrible tumult, I was 
saved as by a miracle. I could not under¬ 
stand what it was all about, and why. I 
ran outside the door to see if I could find 
my father. While I was outside, a short, 
thick-set Turk with heavy black beard and 
moustache came towards me. I did not 



24 


WHEN I WAS A EOT 


like his eyes; they were very wild and 
cruel! He lifted me with his left hand, 
and with his right, started to plunge a 
curved knife into my stomach! I did not 
know what he was about to do; I did not 
yet know what fear was. Just as he was 
about to stab me, a tall Turk came run¬ 
ning up and hit him on the back, making 
a motion with his hands, which I suppose 
meant to hurry. My captor dropped me 
on the floor and ran. Hardly had these 
men gone when came a group of armed 
Armenians who were on the trail of these 
barbarians. Women robbed of their 
jewels and clothing told them the direc¬ 
tion they went, and the Armenians hur¬ 
ried after them. Soon after the butcher¬ 
ing and the noise of the rifles had sub¬ 
sided, I found myself alone, and then be¬ 
gan to cry for my father. A kindly Ar¬ 
menian woman took me in her arms and 
carried me with her—she was our neigh¬ 
bor’s wife, as I was told later. How I 
wish now that I had been old enough to 


IN ARMENIA 


25 


fight side by side with my father against 
those brutal Turks! 

The next day those Armenians who had 
survived came together. All their food¬ 
stuffs and clothing and household goods 
had been plundered and taken away to the 
Turkish village. 

A few weeks later, a telegram came 
from my aunt. She resided in Adana, 
Cilicia, in Lesser Armenia—where no such 
things occurred; “ The Great Assassin’s ” 
policy was to attack different parts of the 
country at different times. I was brought 
into Adana in care of my niece, following 
a journey of thirty days by caravan. Dur¬ 
ing this journey, I was carried in a square 
box topped with sunshades of equal weight 
which balanced my position on the saddle. 

In Adana I first became conscious of 
my surroundings, of the world around me. 
It was here that I began school and passed 
my childhood and boyhood. 


CHAPTER III 


MY SCHOOL DAYS 

Adana is the capital of Cilicia, and its 
largest city, built on broad, level ground, 
and with a climate distinctly Californian. 
Adana has many fertile fields of cotton 
and wheat, and is surrounded with beauti¬ 
ful gardens. An hour’s ride on horseback 
from the city, stretch the beautiful vine¬ 
yards with all kinds of fruit-trees. My 
home town, Adana, is two hours by train 
from the Mediterranean Sea, and one hour 
from Tarsus, where the first Christian 
church was built by the Apostle Paul. 
This church still stands to-day as it was 
built almost nineteen hundred years ago, 
with only a few repairs. Armenians still 
worship in this church. 

Armenian schools are maintained at 

great cost and against many obstacles. 

Love of learning is a marked characteristic 

26 


IN ARMENIA 


27 


of our people. At that time we had a na¬ 
tional school system, taxing our people 
for the maintenance of education, whose 
headquarters was located in Constanti¬ 
nople, under the name of The Union of 
Armenian Schools. This organization 
provided for a network of schools all over 
Armenia, closely connected with and 
largely supported by the Armenian 
church. Our elementary schools were 
free, but higher education was paid for, in 
part, by the students. 

When I was six years old, I entered the 
kindergarten ( mangabardez) in the Ar¬ 
menian churchyard. Here I learned the 
Armenian alphabet on a slate. As I be¬ 
came a little older, I entered the Gram¬ 
mar School (dzaghgots ). I then learned 
how to read and write Armenian, cipher¬ 
ing, history, and church catechism. When 
I became ten years old, I went to High 
School (Partzrakouyn Varjaran ). Here 
I learned drawing, composition, geogra¬ 
phy, music, etc. Incidentally, I want to 


28 


WEEN I WAS A BOY 


mention the fact that when I was being 
transferred to the High School, the prin¬ 
cipal raised the objection that I was too 
young for admission, but my teacher, 
placing his hand on my head, caressed me 
and said to the principal, “ Although he 
is young, he is first in the class, and very 
good in his lessons.” 

Our school was open to all the Ar¬ 
menian boys in town. It was a three-story 
stone building, with a large playground, 
where the emnnasium was to be found. 
We had no indoor gymnasiums as you 
have here in America. In order to reach 
the class-room we had to climb the stone 
steps. Our school was void of any decora¬ 
tions. It contained only the students’ 
seats and the teacher’s desk. As you en¬ 
tered the school from the main entrance, 
the first thing you noticed directly in front 
of you was the teacher’s desk. 

I can still see our serious-faced teacher 
bending over his desk on a high platform 
and busily engaged in his work. On the 


IN ARMENIA 


29 


right side of his desk lay three sticks, and 
a hand-bell. He was a person of rather 
severe discipline, and always kept two or 
three good switches on hand, which the 
pupils supplied. We all competed with 
one another to have the honor of bringing 
the best stick and keeping the teacher well 
supplied, for we fondly hoped that the 
teacher would spare us for our service. 
On the contrary, however, the one who 
brought the stick usually got the first taste 
of it! 

One day my teacher asked me to bring 
in a good, fresh stick from our vineyard. 
I knew what was coming, so I answered, 
“ Sir, I am sorry, I cannot bring you any 
more sticks, because each time I brought 
one I was the first to feel it.” I can still 
see the gentle twist at the right corner of 
his mouth and his suppressed smile, as he 
made answer, “ Alexanian, you have al¬ 
ways a stone ready in your mouth,” which 
meant “ you are always ready to give 
quick, witty, and clever answers.” As a 


30 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


boy, I was well known in the school, at 
home, and in my neighborhood as a “ witty 
bov,” and well liked for it. 

One day in our vineyard we had a lady 
visitor who wished to go home at eleven 
o’clock at night. I was asked to take the 
lady on horseback to her vineyard, which 
was three hours distant from ours. I 
jumped on the horse, and with the lady 
behind me, took her home. It was one 
o’clock in the morning when I reached her 
place, and turned the horse’s head towards 
home. The night was very dark, and I 
did not know the road. The night guards 
of the vineyard were blowing their whis¬ 
tles, which terrified me still more. In a 
moment I got on the road and dropped 
the reins of the horse, and then, the horse 
brought me back to our vineyard safely! 
When I arrived, mv folks took me down 
from the horse, kissed me and praised me 
for being so clever and brave, but my 
answer was, “ Give the credit to the 
horse; he was the one to find the road, not 


IN ARMENIA 31 

I.” I was very much praised for this 
answer. 

Each morning we began our school with 
a prayer. All students joined in the 
chorus and sang “ Our God, All-merciful, 
Omniscient.” After the prayer, we had 
our morning classes. The teacher read 
loudly from the book and we repeated af¬ 
ter him in a loud voice. Sometimes he 
asked us questions which we had to answer 
from memory. We had our recesses and 
left school earlv in the afternoon for home. 
We had no grading. The smartest pupil 
sat at the head of the class, and he was 
followed by the next best. There was 
lively competition among us to be at the 
head of the class, for that, of course, was 
a great honor. 

When any one of the pupils did not be¬ 
have well in class-room or in play, he was 
punished severely by the teacher. Almost 
every pupil has felt the force of one of 
those sticks on the palm of his hand dur¬ 
ing some time of his school days. We 


32 


WEEN I WAS A BOY 


were very much afraid of our teacher, for, 
with the consent of our parents, he had 
absolute control over his pupils. In a 
way, he virtually owned us. 

I remember once hearing a mother with 
her boy (a truant who used to run away 
from school) tell the teacher: “ Here is 
my boy; his flesh is yours, his bones mine, 
do as you wish with him to keep him at 
school! ” Which meant that the teacher 
could whip him as much as he wanted if 
he ran away again from school. 

In the school we had a man called 
derides , a kind of truant officer. When a 
pupil was absent from school this derides 
went after him. As there were no street¬ 
cars or taxis, the school officer would sling 
the boy over his back and carry him back to 
school, where he generally got a whipping 
from the teacher. I always liked to go to 
school and was never absent. 

I was, however, very lively and sanguine 
in play, and on account of this, used to 
have many fights with the boys. I remem- 


IN ARMENIA 


33 


ber having a good many welts on my 
palm. Besides the stick, another punish¬ 
ment in the school was to stand up on one 
foot for an hour—usually with another 
pupil watching you to see that you kept 
your foot up in the air. Still another pun¬ 
ishment was to hold a large volume of the 
Holy Bible in your hands for an hour. 
Again, many of us knew the tedium of be¬ 
ing kept after school hours in the even¬ 
ing, and copy from 100 to 500 lines from 
a book. This discipline produced many 
good penmen. The punishment that the 
boys disliked most of all was to have their 
faces blackened with charcoal and stand 
at the door of the school, to be looked at 
by all the pupils. 

The Turkish government did not allow 
our teacher to teach Armenian history in 
the schools. If a teacher was caught with 
a book on Armenian history, seen or re¬ 
lated of as teaching Armenian history, he 
was imprisoned for life. Against this, our 
teacher forbade us to speak Turkish in 


34 


WEEN I WAS A BOY 


class-room or play; there was a secret-ser¬ 
vice pupil who reported any one speaking 
Turkish. Those who were reported had 
to pay a penny each time they were 
caught. The money thus collected was 
used in buying paper and pens for needy 
students. 

After school in the evening we used to 
go home in groups. All the pupils liv¬ 
ing on the same street or neighborhood 
formed a separate squad and marched 
home in rows of fours under the guidance 
of a leader. On our way home, no one 
was allowed to speak or make noise. We 
had to behave well. Those who did not 
were reported to the teacher the next day, 
and the one reported duly received his 
punishment. Usually the pupil who mis¬ 
behaved in the squad did not appear the 
next morning for fear of punishment; and 
then he was not safe, because the truant 
officer would be after him and bring him 
back to school, where he received double 
punishment. When our squad reached its 



A Group of Armenian Pupils. 





IN ARMENIA 35 

neighborhood, it was disbanded, and each 
pupil went merrily to his home. 

In Armenia, girls’ and boys’ schools are 
separate. Boys do not mix with girls of 
their age, either in school or in play. 
There was no school on Saturdays. Every 
Saturday being a house-cleaning day for 
the Armenian homes, we boys ran errands 
for our parents and then were free to 
play. On Sunday afternoons after church, 
the boys in the neighborhood came to¬ 
gether to go off swimming and playing 
outside the city in the gardens and vine¬ 
yards. 

One Sunday afternoon, with some school 
chums, I went to the gardens to play. 
When we were returning, we met another 
group of school chums, who asked us to 
join them. I told them we were going 
home to supper. 

“We have lunch with us,” answered one 
of the boys in the other group; “ if you 
join us, you can share our lunch.” 

“ All right,” said I, and anxious to play 


36 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


a little longer, we crossed the river to an 
island. While we were playing on this 
island, one of the boys, who happened to 
be the son of our teacher, fell into the river 
on becoming top-heavy trying to dip his 
head into the water. I rushed after him, 
throwing out my long belt to him so he 
could hold on and I could pull him out, 
but he was unconscious and could not help 
himself. Then I took off my clothes, for 
I was a good swimmer, and jumped into 
the river. It was a very deep and dan¬ 
gerous place; the current tossed me about. 
I was near to getting drowned myself but 
I kept after him until a big current tossed 
me to the shore and carried the little boy 
away. We ran to the countryside for 
help; older swimmers jumped into the 
water but could not find him. After three 
days, his body was discovered by divers 
under the bridge of the River Sihoon. 

Poor boy, I felt very sorry for him, but 
it was his fault and we could not help it; 
as the boys told me, he would not listen to 


IN ARMENIA 


37 


them, and by going too far into the river, 
he lost his life. Ever since I have been 
especially careful in swimming. 

Thus I lived the first half of my boy¬ 
hood in Adana, working in school and 
playing outside of school hours. How I 
wish I could go back to those golden days 
of my boyhood! But they are gone; gone 
forever! 


CHAPTER IY 


MY LIFE AND EDUCATION IN A MONASTERY 

When I was about twelve years old, I 
had a great desire for the Armenian 
priesthood. I was very much impressed 
by the strong and magnetic personality, 
and inspired by the ability and leadership 
of the bishop of our home town. Hence a 
strong desire to follow his example was 
awakened in me. My relatives advised 
me against it, but their advice could not 
swerve me from my determination. One 
day, upon my consistent request, my 
cousin took me to the Armenian bishop 
and told him about my desire to go to the 
monastery and study for the priesthood. 
When we were in his presence I bowed, 
kissed his hand, and stood six paces away 
from him. 

The bishop said, “ This Sunday I am 

going to give a sermon; if you can repeat 

38 


IN ARMENIA 


39 


this sermon verbatim Monday morning, I 
will see that you enter the monastery.” 

Sunday, as usual, I was in the church 
attentively listening to his sermon. After 
church I played all the afternoon, and on 
Monday morning I repeated his sermon 
word for word in his presence and that of 
his colleagues. 

The bishop’s comment was, “ Very good, 
my boy; I feel that you will be a great 
man some day.” Upon this, he made the 
arrangements for my entrance into the 
monastery. In September I was sent to 
the monastery schools at Sis, the capital 
of our old Armenian kingdom in Cilicia. 
Sis is a great reminder of our glorious 
past, with its old and war-scarred castles, 
its buried treasures, its ruins of magnifi¬ 
cent churches. 

The monastery was built on the side of 
a huge mountain, called the Mountain of 
Leon. Leon VI was our last king in 
Cilicia, Lesser Armenia. He died in 
Paris, and was buried in the church of St. 


40 


WHEN I WA,S A BOY 


Denis, Paris, France. His sepulcher still 
stands there to-day. The mountain is 
named after him because his castles were 
built on the top of this mountain, and these 
castles still stand to-day as a reminder 
of his brave battles. Many a time have I 
climbed on top of them, where I enjoyed 
a view overlooking the Taurus Mountains 
of the beautiful landscape of Cilicia. 

The monastery occupied about fifty 
acres of land, with a tall and thick wall 
encircling it, and two doors—a large one 
on the east, and a small on the west side. 
These doors were kept open during the 
day, and locked every night at six o’clock. 
Within the walls of the monastery stood 
the headquarters of the Cathoghigos, the 
cells of the monks, the church, a bath¬ 
house, a fountain, a well, a garden, a vine¬ 
yard, a school, and a large stable in which 
we had many good Arabian stallions. 
Our monastery had a very commanding 
location overlooking the beautiful pano¬ 
rama of the city and countryside. 



IN ARMENIA 


41 


In this monastery there were twelve 
monks, two deacons, and a school of 
twenty students. We were taught Arme¬ 
nian, English, French, Turkish, History, 
Literature, Geography, Physics, Botany, 
Zoology, Mathematics, and Commentary 
on the Bible. Our ideal was to become a 
great leader or a great teacher. The 
monks in Armenian are called vartabed, 
which means doctor or teacher. They cul¬ 
tivate the sciences, and take degrees which 
may be compared with the usual academic 
honors. They spend their days in prayer, 
devotion to study, and the preservation of 
old manuscripts. They are pious, revered, 
and clean-living people. They live in small 
cells; for their belongings they have but a 
few articles—their black robes and books. 
The interior of their cells is very simple, 
void of decorations, and kept clean and 
neat. Some of the monks are called by the 
Armenian people to take the leadership 
of their spiritual life and work, and a 
great many of them have rendered valu- 



42 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


able religious, educational, and political 
service to the Armenian people. We owe 
them a great debt. 

My life in the monastery was altogether 
too religious and rather monotonous for a 
boy. We were in all twenty students, all 
of tis studying for celibacy. We wore long, 
black, flowing robes, black shoes, and 
black caps. Our daily work consisted of 
getting up early in the morning and going 
to church; then to breakfast; then to study, 
with play in the afternoon; and church 
again in the evening. On Wednesday and 
Saturday afternoons, we went mountain- 
climbing and nature-walking, visited his¬ 
torical places, and sang all the Armenian 
patriotic songs while in the valley or on 
top of the mountains. 

A large hall served as dormitory; each 
student had his own bedstead. The beds 
were arranged in two rows, ten on each 
side, opposite each other. Above his bed¬ 
stead on the wall each student had a place 
for his towel, soap, comb, and brush. We 


IN ARMENIA 


43 


had a night watchman whose duty it was 
to see that we were kept covered while 
asleep, and come to our help in case of 
need. This man sat in the corner of our 
dormitory in his little room and read all 
night, keeping himself half awake and 
half asleep. He was a real help, however, 
in time of need. Every morning at five 
o’clock he waked us with his hand-bell. 

After we were dressed we fell in line, 
and each one of us put his head under the 
running cold water from a faucet to wash 
our heads. We had to do this every 
morning, summer and winter, without ex- 
ception. By the time we were ready, the 
monastery bell, intended for us and the 
monks within the monastery, had rung. 
It was a bell made of a piece of hard 
wood—a foot wide and three feet long— 
hung from two chains in the courtyard 
of the church. It had a weird tone, this 
bell that invited us to the church. We 
fell in line, in rows of two, and marched 
down 150 stone steps to the church. 



44 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


As we entered the church, we took off 
our shoes and put on our “ church 
slippers,” because, according to Armenian 
religious custom, you cannot enter the 
church in your street shoes. Once in the 
church, we separated into two columns, 
ten in each; one column marched to the 
right altar, and the other to the left. In 
the front of each altar there was a book¬ 
stand upon which rested the church hymn- 
book (sharagan ). We formed in horse¬ 
shoe shape before this book-stand and 
sang loud our morning hymns. And we 
sang in order. The first stanza of the 
hymn was sung by the right side, and as 
they finished, the left took up the second 
stanza. We continued in this manner until 
the entire hymn was sung. Prayers and 
hymns succeeded each other alternately 
until the morning ceremonies were over; 
then we marched to the breakfast-room. 

Our breakfast consisted of cheese, but¬ 
ter, milk, and whole-wheat bread. Our 
dinner and supper consisted of pea soup, 


IN ARMENIA 


45 


various cooked vegetables, with very little 
meat. On Wednesdays and Fridays we 
refrained from meat altogether. After 
breakfast we went to school and attended 
our morning classes. In the afternoon 
after dinner, we played in the vineyard 
of the monastery and sang religious 
hymns. 

This monastic life and education exerted 
a great influence over me, especially in the 
plastic stage of my life. Three years of 
religious education, confined within the 
walls of the monastery, entirely out of 
touch with the outside world, all made me 
a mystic, gave me a strong sense of in¬ 
tuition, a good heart, indomitable will 
power, and a sympathetic and helpful per¬ 
sonality. By forgetting the world around 
me, I absorbed some kind of divine power, 
and soon felt that monastic life had sub¬ 
stituted for love of life a divine love—for 
a love of family and children the love of 
worship and devotion to God and to His 
church. 



46 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


In our school we were taught to disdain 
bodily pleasures and substitute for them 
the pleasures of the soul. We developed 
within us and were given by the people a 
high sense of self-esteem and self-respect. 
My education created within me a strong 
desire to cherish the church and devote 
myself either to study, or to the spiritual 
guidance of my people. A strong sense 
of service had taken root in me. I was 
eager to deny myself and be of service or 
of help to some one—any one at all. For 
this service I was to be recompensed with 
a peace of conscience on earth and with an 
everlasting life in heaven. I was com¬ 
pletely given over to the idea of service 
and devotion to God. I had surrendered 
myself to God’s will and command; in 
return I was to secure His divine love and 
blessing. Under the influence of the 
church and the monks, I became intensely 
pious and respectful towards all—young 
or old, rich or poor. 

But soon after I left the monastery, I 



IN ARMENIA 47 

found that the monastic life and education 
had unfitted me for the life of the world. 
I could not get along with my fellow 
beings. I wanted to force my life and my 
ideals upon them. I wanted to create a 
new life and a new social order on a higher 
level. The worldly life seemed too vulgar 
and too flat. Soon I had become a critic. 
I used to criticize any one who did not 
do or act the way I would. My attitude 
of criticism was, of course, not liked by 
those who came in contact with me, be¬ 
cause they did not understand me. Under¬ 
standing is the beginning of wisdom. And 
soon I found out two things: that the com¬ 
plete attainment of my ideal was impos¬ 
sible, and that my attitude as a reformer 
put me in a very precarious position. 

Since leaving the monastery, my life has 
been in constant oscillation; at times har¬ 
monious and at other times discordant with 
the existing social conditions. I have had 
bitter struggles to adjust myself to the 
existing social life; however, I have re- 


48 


WHEN I WA >Sf A BOY 


solved to accept the reality and am trying 
to make the best of it. 

But the spiritual life of the monastery, 
so very delightful and peaceful, laid in 
me a firm foundation of brotherly love, 
a sense of service, of uprightness, of 
truthfulness, of clean-mindedness, of 
clean-heartedness, and a strongly sym¬ 
pathetic attitude towards all. 

. Sometimes I wonder if, after all, I 
made a mistake in entering the monastery 
at so early an age! 

I continued my monastic life until 1909. 
In 1908, however, “ The Great Assassin,” 
Abdul Hamid, was deposed from his 
throne, and a Constitution was established; 
it was to bring Liberty, Equality, and 
Fraternity. But it proved to be a false 
alarm. The young Turks who came in 
power were just as bad as the Sultan him¬ 
self. In 1909, seeing that the Armenians 
were prospering and progressing too 
rapidly, the Turks made an effort to check 
this state of affairs. 


IN ARMENIA 


49 


Turks first began the trouble in my 
home town, Adana, by accusing the Ar¬ 
menians of preparing to gain their inde¬ 
pendence by arms. In the spring, the 
Turks upbraided the Armenians for kill¬ 
ing two Turks. It was true indeed that an 
Armenian had killed two Turks in self- 
defence. This is how it happened: The 
young Armenian in question was on his 
way to his vineyard when two Turks at¬ 
tacked him with intent to kill. The Ar¬ 
menian was a clever fellow, however, and 
got the better of them by killing both. 

The Turks used this event as an excuse 
to attack the Armenians. Now that there 
was a Constitution, Armenians could buy 
arms and ammunition. Knowing the 
Turks well, Armenians were prepared 
against any imminent danger. 

When the fight broke out, the Arme¬ 
nians overcame the Turks; cleaned the city 
of the enemy, repulsed the outside at¬ 
tackers, and held the city in their hands for 
two weeks. The Turks, however, succeeded 


50 


WEEN I WAS A BOY 


through the foreign missionaries in con¬ 
vincing the Armenians that they should 
lay down their arms for the sake of peace 
and the new-born Constitution. The Ar¬ 
menians consented to this only upon con¬ 
dition that the Turks, too, lay down their 
arms. All the arms were then collected 
from both sides by the government. 

Peace was hardly restored when ten bat¬ 
talions of Turkish regular soldiers were 
brought into Adana from other sections 
of the country and arms and ammunition 
were secretly distributed to the Turks. 
Fighting was resumed again, the Arme¬ 
nians defending themselves with their 
clubs, knives, and fists. The Turks, as a 
last resort, burned the city by throwing 
large quantities of kerosene oil upon the 
buildings. What they could not accom¬ 
plish by force, they succeeded in doing by 
treachery! 

Fire and blood spread throughout 
Cilicia. We in the monastery, at Sis, did 
not know what was going on, because all 


IN ARMENIA 


51 


the telegraph wires and other means of 
communication had been cut off by the 
Turks. We did not get the news of this 
horror until one night when fifty-seven 
wounded Armenian fighters entered our 
city. They told us the whole story—that 
they were the survivors of 150 young men 
who broke through the Turkish regular 
lines, fighting their way through for a 
week until they had reached our city. We 
saw that they were bandaged, clothed, and 
fed. When this news spread, five hundred 
young Armenians, all armed, wanted to go 
to Adana for help; but they were warned 
by the returning heroes of the danger and 
practical impossibility of such an attempt. 

The entire city, however, stood on its 
feet! All the women and children were 
brought to our monastery for safe-keep¬ 
ing; the men and even women were armed. 

The Turks of the city had secret orders 
from the Turkish government to be ready 
on Easter Sunday afternoon, while the 
Armenians were at church, to join the 



52 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


regular soldiers of the city and the mob 
that was coming from outside, to attack 
the Armenians. A brave Armenian 
called Djin Toros (Devil Toros) had cap¬ 
tured the orders from the Turkish mes¬ 
sengers and brought them to us. This 
stirred the Armenians into taking posses¬ 
sion of the gateways, passages, and strate¬ 
gic points of the city, and they advised 
the Turks of the city to be neutral, other¬ 
wise they, too, would be subject to dan¬ 
ger. These Turks, although apparently 
peaceful, were in reality, root and branch, 
with their brother Turks outside the city. 

On Easter Sunday, about five o’clock 
in the afternoon, I saw a black mass mov¬ 
ing on the road to the eastern side of our 
monastery, and rapidly advancing upon 
our city. When this black mass gradually 
came in view, I recognized a long line of 
armed Turks on horseback swinging their 
swords and axes high in the air above their 
heads—a mass partly covered in the dust 
raised by the hoofs of their galloping 


IN ARMENIA 


53 


horses. Suddenly they stopped under a 
large pear-tree on the outside of the city; 
here the whole mass gathered together, 
and in one minute, as if it were a one-man 
party, divided itself into two wings, one 
wing stretched towards the northeast and 
the other to the southwest in an attempt 
to envelop the city. 

Then the enemy began to fire and rush 
upon the city with loud war-cries. A 
group of Armenians had occupied the 
castle on the mountain; others were rest¬ 
lessly waiting at the passages and gate¬ 
ways of the city. Armenians were every¬ 
where, in the city, on the mountain, behind 
the rocks, and in the castles. The Turks 
in the city began to tremble with fear. 
With my own eyes, I saw the Turkish 
mayor come to our monastery, and upon 
his knees beg our Catholicos not to harm 
his men, promising his cooperation in driv¬ 
ing away the attacking Bashi Bazouk (ir¬ 
regulars) . The Turks of the city wanted 
to get in touch with their outside country- 


54 


WHEN I WAS A BOY, 


men, to tell them about their hopeless plot, 
but they were helpless because Armenians 
had blocked all the passages of communi¬ 
cation, and no one could get out of the 
city. 

The right wing of the attacking Turks, 
firing and shouting, however, swiftly 
swung upon the city through the green 
and wavy wheat-fields, while the left wing 
dashed to the southwest. As they ap¬ 
proached the city the Armenians, who were 
waiting restlessly, fell upon them with a 
terrible war-cry, at the same time return¬ 
ing the enemy’s fire. The whole valley be¬ 
tween the Taurus Mountains echoed with 
the resonant roar of the Armenians. From 
the east they launched a swift and deadly 
attack in the name of our king, Leon VI, 
crying, “ Long live Cilicia! Home of the 
brave sons of Leon! ” 

The attacking Turks who had expected 
cooperation from the Turks within the city 
received a terrible blow from these Ar¬ 
menians. They hesitated; now the Ar- 


IN ARMENIA 


55 


menians closed in upon them. Both 
sides were yelling and firing. Armenians 
closed still further and drew a ring about 
them. Then began a severe battle at close 
range. 

I can still see the fearless dash of the 
Armenian cavalry; the cling-clang of 
swords, the smoke of the guns, the fall¬ 
ing of the fighters; I can still hear the 
neighing of the horses and the clash of 
swords. The brave Armenians were too 
much for the Turks! The enemy turned 
tail and ran for their lives. Thereupon the 
Armenian cavalry dashed after them and 
gave chase until all had disappeared in 
dust among the distant mountains. 

But this was not all! The Turks were 
attacking the city from the west also. 
They had come from the west to burn the 
city, while we were being attacked from 
the east. Quite a scheme, thought these 
poor devils, who did not realize that the 
Armenians, no fools, guarded the west as 
well as the east. 


56 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


So the fight was being waged on the 
east and the west simultaneously. On the 
western side of the city, the Armenians 
were on foot, taking position behind the 
rocks of the Mountain of Leon and in the 
ruined castles on the outskirts of the city. 
The Turks, who were also on foot, came 
crawling on their stomachs through the 
wheat-fields in order to burn the city; 
when we caught them later, they were 
loaded down with kindling-wood, kero¬ 
sene, and matches for use in their intended 
work. 

The Armenians, diligently waiting, were 
told not to shoot until they were almost in 
the city. But one bold Armenian could 
not, and did not wait longer; this was our 
gunsmith Khatcho , who dashed forward 
and met the Turks face to face in the field. 
The Turk who had advanced farthest 
stood up, lifted his gun, and aimed to 
shoot, but our Khatclio was cleverer and 
quicker. He shot the Turk through the 
forehead, then swiftly advanced upon the 


IN ARMENIA 57 

others. More Armenians followed him. 
The fight began. 

These crawling Turks now threw away 
their incendiary outfits and taking up their 
arms, returned fire after jumping into the 
trenches (which were dug for irrigation 
purposes and called khandecks ). The 
Armenians rallied upon them, yelling, 
shouting, and firing. I could see all this 
plainly from the monastery. Most of the 
Turks who were wounded ran to the river 
near by, drank water, and were found dead 
and swollen two days later. 

While the battle was being fought on 
this side, I saw a little donkey that had 
become alarmed at the sound of the guns 
and was jumping around in a queer man¬ 
ner, erecting his long ears, and twisting 
his tail now to the right, now to the left. 
We could not help laughing, terrible as 
was the time. 

All during the battle I was restless. I 
wanted to join the fighters. Five of us 
students went to the leader and asked him 


58 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


to let us get into the battle. He told us 
we were too young, that there were enough 
fighters. We did not like his refusal; our 
blood was boiling, and we wanted to be in 
the thick of the battle. Oh, it was so ex¬ 
citing, so wonderful! 

For a week we kept watch and guarded 
the city from any attack, and after that 
peace and order were restored, and our 
city was safe, thanks to our heroic fighters. 

Whenever Armenians have had a chance 
to fight the Turks on equal terms and on 
a fair ground, they have proved themselves 
superior. Turks know this well! 





t b f ■% 




fepfassx 


W»W;fW hyti uxbui. 






aw<" /</»««,. 


.iwm 


The Glory of Armenia. 

Famous Characters in Armenian History 


































I 


* 





CHAPTER V 


MY HOME AND MY FAMILY 

I come from a family of merchants and 
clergymen, my father having been a well- 
known merchant in my native city. He 
was a brave man, tall, well-built, of fair 
skin, brown eyes, and blond hair. 

The house in which we lived in Adana 
was very modest in structure and appear¬ 
ance. It was built of sun-baked mud 
bricks. There were four buildings, each 
two stories in height, and facing each 
other, with a large courtyard in the cen¬ 
ter. Our house was flat-roofed; all Ar¬ 
menian houses are built in this fashion, to 
serve a special purpose. In the summer 
when the weather was too warm, we used 
to put up a screened chardack on the flat 
roof of our house and sleep upon it. This 
is an elevated wooden stand (like the 

band-stands you see in America) which 

59 


60 


WEEN I WAS A BOY 


can be easily dismantled and stored away 
for the winter. 

As a boy I remember, when I was sent 
to bed early (all the Armenian boj^s go to 
bed early) during the summer evenings, 
how I used to lie on my back in bed on 
the chardack, watching the bright stars 
twinkling in the clear, blue sky; intently 
observing the milky way, and closely fol¬ 
lowing the path of the shooting stars; for, 
according to an Armenian legend, each 
time a shooting star falls, a person dies 
in the direction pointed out by the meteor. 
How diligently I used to count those stars, 
until, tired of my boyish efforts to find 
an end, I fell asleep! It was a very pleas¬ 
ant way, indeed, to fall asleep. 

In our courtyard we had a garden, a 
well, from which we got our drinking 
water, and a tonir to bake our bread. 
A tonir is a big earthen jar built on the 
ground, four feet in height, circular in 
shape, and with a round opening on top. 
When bread is to be baked, a fire is made 


IN ARMENIA 


61 


inside the tonir. The dough, after being 
flattened on the board by an okhlavoo, is 
taken by the baker-woman on the palm of 
the hand and arm, and stuck to the inside 
hot walls of the tonir . In three minutes 
the bread is baked! This kind of baking 
makes the bread easily digestible, and it can 
be kept for a long time without moulding. 
After being baked, the bread is stored 
away in large wooden boxes. When it is to 
be used, it is sprinkled over with water and 
wrapped in a white cloth, or it may be 
eaten dry, like crackers. I preferred to 
eat mine dry, and found it was very taste¬ 
ful. The bread-baking is done by profes¬ 
sional baker-women who travel from house 
to house and ask if their services are 
needed. They usually know when bread 
is needed in such and such a family. 

Our well had around its mouth a stone 
wall, about three feet in height, a wheel, 
rope, and pail. Each time we wanted 
water, we used to lower the pail into the 
well and draw out the water by the wheel. 


62 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


I remember that it is very easy to fall into 
such wells and get drowned; many boys 
have been drowned in this way. 

Our house was entered through a large 
door with two wings, an iron knocker on 
each wing. As we had no electric but¬ 
tons, the visitor had to make use of this 
device in order to enter. When some one 
knocked at the door, I used to call out, 
“ Who is there? ” The visitor had to give 
his name in a loud voice, and only when 
we recognized a friend, did we open the 
door. Three families (all relatives) lived 
in our house, each occupying a two-story 
building. 

The first story of our house was used 
for a cellar, where we kept twelve large 
earthen jars of provisions, filled with dried 
vegetables, fruits, cereals, raisins, nuts; 
and two large jars of wine. The cellar 
was mv favorite; here I used to break in 
often and fill my pockets with raisins and 
nuts, of which I was verv fond. 

On the second floor we had one large 


IN ARMENIA 


63 


and one small room spanned by a piazza. 
The former served as a kitchen and the 
latter as a living-room and dining-room. 
The third room was our sleeping chamber, 
where we had a yukluk covered with a 
curtain. A yukluk is a wooden, elevated 
structure, set inside the back wall, where 
our beds were kept in the daytime. We 
did not use any bedsteads (this is the cus¬ 
tom with all Armenians). At bedtime, 
the beds are spread on the floor of the 
room, and in the morning they are folded 
and placed in the yukluk, and the curtain 
pulled over so that no one is able to see 
them. It is rather a back-breaking job 
for the women who have to fold the beds 
twice a day. 

In the center of our living-room was a 
large rug, with long rugs on each side of 
the room, and cushions stuffed with wool. 
We had no chairs; we sat on these rugs, 
our legs folded, and leaned against the 
cushions. There were no pictures on the 
walls; instead we had twelve large bunches 


64 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


of winter grapes and six large winter 
melons hanging by ropes from the ceil¬ 
ing. And in place of electricity or gas, 
our room was lighted with three kerosene 
lamps. For ventilation, the door, windows, 
and fireplace served the purpose. Neither 
did we have steam heat or hot air; our 
room was heated with three manghals (tin 
receptacles held on tripods) in which we 
made a charcoal fire, and these, when 
ready, we brought into the room. The 
family then circled around to warm them¬ 
selves. Another way of heating was the 
ojacli, a kind of old-fashioned fireplace, 
where we made a fire. Altogether, we 
were quite warm and comfortable. 

There were no “ movies ” or theatres in 
my home town. Usually the neighbors 
came to our house in the evening and told 
stories (hekiat ), to which I listened with 
great attention and enthusiasm; or they 
would read the daily papers and discuss 
the news. Playing cards—particularly 
backgammon—(a favorite indoor sport 


IN ARMENIA 


65 


with John Locke, the great English phi¬ 
losopher) is a very popular pastime in Ar¬ 
menia. Just as “ bridge ” is absorbing to 
Americans, so is the backgammon the de¬ 
light of Armenians; once they begin, it 
becomes difficult for them to quit. 

No Armenian boy or girl is allowed out¬ 
side the house after six o’clock, unless ac¬ 
companied by a chaperon. After I did all 
my studies, I went early to bed with a 
prayer; each morning, also, I prayed be¬ 
fore breakfast. 

The Armenian Food 

Our food is simple but very wholesome. 
For breakfast we had fried eggs, tea, and 
bread. Lunch was light, but our supper 
rather elaborate. 

Our food consisted of fresh, cooked 
vegetables, eggs, fresh lamb, and fresh 
fish. We are not acquainted with canned 
food, storage eggs, or storage meat. Every¬ 
thing we eat is bought fresh every day. 
We dried our vegetables for the winter. 


66 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


The most favorite Armenian dishes in my 
town were pilav, madzoon , kafteh , sarma , 
dolma, and kebab . 

Pilav is made of coarsely ground whole 
wheat after it is washed, boiled, and dried. 
Then it is cooked with tomatoes and fresh 
butter. This dish is very delicious and 
easy to digest. Madzoon is what the 
Americans call “ sour milk.” It is made 
by boiling the milk and letting it cool un¬ 
til it is lukewarm, then adding vegetable 
yeast, covering it, and letting ferment. In 
three hours’ time, you have delicious mad- 



surprised at the longevity of Armenians, 
may wish to know the cause; it is attribu¬ 
table partly to their sobriety and regular 
hours, but more especially to the use of 
madzoon . It has been well demonstrated 
by the great Russian bacteriologist, 
Metchnikoff, that madzoon or “ sour 
milk is a great aid to longevity by its 
helpful action on the bacteria in the intes¬ 
tinal tract. Sarma and dolma are made 


IN ARMENIA 


67 


by stuffing fresh minced-meat mixed with 
rice or bulgoor in grape-vine leaves, pep¬ 
pers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and cabbage. 
Kebab is broiled lamb. 

The Armenian Family 

Armenians observe an improved form 
of the old patriarchal family. The father 
or eldest living male rules supreme. The 
mother, on the other hand, is the queen of 
the house; she rules supreme in domestic 
affairs. Her duty is to see that the chil¬ 
dren are properly clothed, and look neat 
and clean. She does not mind her hus¬ 
band’s business, nor does the husband mix 
in his wife’s domestic affairs; there is a dis¬ 
tinct division of work and duties between 
husband and wife. Each tries to excel in 
his own field. This system eliminates many 
unpleasant quarrels and misunderstand¬ 
ings, replacing them with mutual under¬ 
standing, love, and devotion. In the even¬ 
ing the husband comes directly home from 
work; he has no clubs to go to, or busi- 


G8 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


ness engagements to make, hence stays at 
home and passes his evenings pleasantly 
with his family. 

Husband and wife are mutual com¬ 
panions in life, their aim being the upkeep 
and maintenance of a happy family. 
There is mutual love and respect for each 
other; a sincere loyalty runs through the 
whole family. Every boy is envious of his 
family’s name and pride, and he will safe¬ 
guard it zealously. 

The father is considered the “ king,” 
and the mother the “ queen ” of the house. 
Both are respected and implicitly obeyed 
by their children, who do not and cannot 
give them “ back talk,” or tell them that 
they are wrong in this or that matter; they 
never say, “ I won’t.” 

In the house, the father occupies the 
highest seat and is followed by his chil¬ 
dren according to their age. The young 
man cannot smoke in the presence of his 
parents, and is not allowed to talk without 
permission, especially in the presence of a 


IN ARMENIA 


69 


guest. The daughters are the helpmates 
of the mother. Usually they serve their 
parents the coffee and refreshments, carry¬ 
ing the tray to the eldest member first 
and making a bow. After all cups are 
removed, they walk back and stand in the 
rear of the room, tray in hand, until all 
the coffee cups are emptied; then another 
bow as each person is approached and re¬ 
lieved of the china. 

Grown-up boys and young men, even 
after they are married and have children 
of their own, refrain from smoking or 
drinking in the presence of their parents. 
Usually the married son does not leave 
his father’s house; it is a common thing 
to see an Armenian family with as many 
as sixty members. In our family there 
were twenty-two, all living in separate 
flats in the same house. 

At meal times, the women do not join 
their men. Two separate dining-tables 
are set; one for the men, and another for 
the women and children. No woman joins 


70 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


the men’s table except the grandmother; 
it is not considered etiquette. Our din¬ 
ing-table was a large, round affair about 
one foot in height. We sat around this 
table, the eldest always sitting at the head. 
A prayer was said before and after each 
meal, usually by the youngest boy of the 
family. Before the meal, I used to repeat 
the Lord’s Prayer, and after the meal the 
following prayer: “ May our God, the 
Father, bless and preserve the plentiful¬ 
ness of our table; blessed be His name; 
Amen.” 

After dinner and a wash, men sit in the 
room and smoke their water-pipes ( nar - 
gileli) or roll their cigarettes. I have 
often carried fire for the water-pipe; its 
gurgle and bubble amused me very much. 
After dinner we washed our hands under 
a faucet. When we had a guest, we had 
quite a different method of washing the 
hands, to wit: a round basin with a cover 
(punctured by many holes) on which there 
was an elevated place for the soap. Be- 


IN ARMENIA 


71 


sides this we had an ubruk, a silver-plated 
metal jug filled with water. I used to 
sling a towel over my left arm, take the 
jug in my right, and, holding the wash¬ 
basin in my left, make the round by set¬ 
ting the basin in front of the person who 
wished to use it, pouring water over his 
hands and handing him the towel. 

Women begin to eat after the men are 
through. After the women are through 
eating, all dishes are washed and nothing 
is left unclean for to-morrow. There is 
no fight over “ Who will do the dishes? ” 
Nor is the husband asked “ to help his wife 
in the kitchen.” 

In Adana, we had thirty mules and five 
horses kept in the stable in a khan (inn) 
of the city. We had a government con¬ 
tract for “ the snow of the mountains.” 
Our mules were sent to the mountains 
with caretakers, who brought large blocks 
of snow wrapped in felt. When the snow 
reached the city, it was unwrapped and 
stored away in the straw pile in a one-story 


72 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


house. All the jobbers of the city had to 
come and buy the snow from us. As I 
mentioned before, Adana is quite warm in 
the summer, so we had much need for 
snow. It was mixed with different drinks 
and sold to the people by the jobbers. 
Each year we had to pay the government 
250 Turkish pounds (a little over $1,000) 
for this privilege. 

Besides the snow business, my relatives 
had three department stores for dry- 
goods. They were well-known for their 
honesty in business and charity to the 
poor. 



Harvest Time. 





CHAPTER VI 


THE INFANCY OF AN ARMENIAN CHILD 

Customs and Ceremonies 

The customs and ceremonies attend¬ 
ing the infancy of an Armenian child 
seem very curious to Americans. Cus¬ 
toms are habits strongly fixed in the lives 
of individuals or a people; they cannot 
be eradicated easily. Our customs still 
survive as they were handed down to us 
from our forefathers. 

According to an Armenian superstition, 

the new-born child should be carefully 

and constantly guarded, because the gagli 

crogh (lame devil) is anxious either to 

steal or change the child, or strangle him 

at birth. For this reason, the nurse, 

(called ebe ) who has been watching the 

“ lame devil ” and praying, lights a candle 

and burns incense, blowing the smoke 

gently towards the bed of the mother, in 

73 


74 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


the meantime murmuring something in a 
low voice, being careful that the mother 
does not hear. By crossing her face, she 
says a prayer to chase the “ lame devil ” 
away. When the nurse is very anxious, she 
gently blows the candle light towards the 
face of the mother, and utters the follow¬ 
ing prayer: 

“ May the light of Christ, 

And the breath of our Saviour 
Give you comfort and strength.” 

When the child is born, the nurse takes 
it into her arms and congratulates the 
mother. Then all the members of the 
family in turn pass the baby around and 
greet each other; they do not, however, kiss 
the child, because he is not yet baptized. 
Immediatelv after birth, the child’s nose 
is shaped to give it the form of an eagle’s 
beak, because this shape is liked by the Ar¬ 
menians. The child is then dressed in 
white clothes. After eight days, the child 
is taken to the church, where it is baptized 


IN ARMENIA 


75 


by immersion in the holy font three times, 
and anointed with “ holy oil ” prepared 
from 1,001 species of flowers by our 
Catholicos—the head of the Armenian 
church in Cilicia. 

During the baptism, the godfather takes 
the child in his arms, standing directly in 
front of the altar and holding a burning 
candle in each hand. After the baptism, 
the child is brought home in the arms of 
the godfather with burning candles and 
followed with relatives and friends. At 
the time of baptism, the godfather pro¬ 
fesses the Christian faith in the child’s 
name, and takes the responsibility of his 
religious and moral education. When 
the party reaches home, all relatives, 
friends, and neighbors come to the child’s 
house with many presents, and greet the 
mother. And there is a great feast. 

After another eight days, the child is 
taken out of its swaddling clothes and 
wrapped in new ones containing red earth 
from the vineyard. The earth is warmed 



76 


WHEN I A BOY 


before being used. Many times have I 
been asked the reason why Armenians 
wrapped their children in red earth. Ac¬ 
cording to tradition, red earth is used to 
bind the child to its mother earth so that 
it will not renounce and forget the lat¬ 
ter while in a foreign country. Accord¬ 
ing to another tradition, the red earth 
is used so that the child can draw strength 
and life from it. 

The babe is carefully wrapped, with the 
hands close to the body, and put into the 
cradle. The mother places the child on 
its back, and it is always kept lying on its 
back—never on its side. The cradle is 
generally low and egg-shaped; small bells 
and rattles hang from its side, so that when 
the cradle is in motion, the child goes to 
sleep from the tinkle of those bells. 
Mother knows many lullabies with which 
to sing her babe to sleep. 

It is also a custom to decorate with blue 
beads the arm of the child, or hang a cross 
from the forehead in order to protect the 


IN ARMENIA 


77 


child from “ evil eyes.” When the child 
is two or three months old, it is put in a 
swinging cradle. A long rope is attached 
at one end of this cradle, and mother has 
the other end while she swings baby to 
sleep. If the mother is busy doing bead- 
work or knitting, she will attach the end 
of the rope to her big toe, thus swinging 
the child to sleep while she is doing her 
work. 

The following is an example of the 
many Armenian lullabies: 

66 Lulla, lulla, lullaby, 

You will sleep by and by; 

Our great silvery moon 
Will shine upon you soon.” 

When a child is six months old, it is put 
in a tender (a device which teaches the 
child to walk). This is a fixture made up 
of two flat boards, each two feet square 
and nailed to four sticks. This fixture 
extends as far as the child’s armpits; there 
is a hole on the top board. The child is 
lowered through the hole on the bottom 


78 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


board, his head and arms left outside, and 
his body tied to the sticks so that the child 
cannot sit down. This device teaches 
baby how to stand up. When the time 
comes for it to walk, it is put in front of 
a triangular wheeled apparatus; the child, 
holding on to the top and tied to it, walks 
up and down the room. 

When the child is one year old (and be¬ 
gins to teethe), a blanket is spread on the 
floor of the room, the child is blindfolded 
and placed in the center of it, and there 
are articles scattered around the child—a 
mirror, scissors, book, hammer, etc. Dif¬ 
ferent articles are used for boys and 
for the girls. When everything is ready, 
the mother, holding a sifter above the 
head of the child—the sifter being filled 
with boiled and dried wheat seeds ( liadig) 
—gently shakes the sifter in a circular 
motion. When the wheat seeds drop on 
and around the child, its eyes are un¬ 
folded. Seeing many articles about, the 
child picks up that one which interests him 


IN ARMENIA 79 

most, and this article decides the little 
one’s professional career. 

I was told that I had picked up the 
Bible; that is why, I presume, I studied 
for the priesthood. This ceremony is per¬ 
formed before a circle of relatives and 
friends. It is very significant in the life 
of a child, and a happy occasion for the 
mother. She is delighted and heartily 
congratulated by all those present if the 
child picks up a book, for that is a sign 
that her child will become great and 
famous. 


CHAPTER YII 


WEDDINGS 

The wedding day is the happiest day 
in the Armenian’s life; it is also a day of 
serious responsibilities, for Armenians 
consider marriage as serious and sacred. 
Furthermore, a wedding is a gala day for 
little boys and girls, because on this oc¬ 
casion they are given a good time and 
plenty of candy, hasdecli, rodjick, and 
koulindga (Armenian sweets). 

The Armenian marriage is indissoluble; 
the church refuses to accord divorce; al¬ 
though separation is allowed, under very 
serious conditions; the separated party 
cannot marry again. So, you see, married 
couples in Armenia are faced with a very 
solemn problem when they marry. Once 
united, they try to make the best of it 
by ironing out all minor differences and 
bravely suppressing the major ones. No 

courtship is allowed before marriage. 

80 


IN ARMENIA 


81 


The first step towards marriage is 
chosk-gab. The priest examines the bride 
and groom to see that they are not related 
to each other and that their ages are ap¬ 
propriate, for Armenians marry early. 
After cliosk-gab comes the engagement; 
as a present, the fiance gives the fiancee 
the following articles: (1) an engagement 
ring, (2) a bracelet, (3) a pair of ear¬ 
rings, and (4) a veil. The fiancee wears 
the ring on the fourth finger of her 
right hand (which corresponds to the 
vein from the heart), to show that she 
consented to marry him with her own 
heart; the bracelet indicates that with 
her own hand she binds herself in obedi¬ 
ence to him; the earrings indicate that she 
heard the request with her own ears and 
consented to it with her own mind. 

Seven days before the marriage cere¬ 
mony, relatives and friends gather to¬ 
gether in the fiance’s house to hold a pre¬ 
liminary feast. During these seven days, 
both sides make koulinja (scones) upon 


82 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


which are printed various figures. These 
are distributed to those present by two 
elderly women from the side of the groom, 
and serve as invitation cards. If the groom 
is a rich man, they distribute two candles 
with each koulinja; if he is not rich, the 
koulinja stands, and if he is poor, just a 
candle is sent. 

Thursday is the day of the feast, inter¬ 
rupted on Friday, on account of fasting 
on that day, and it recommences on Sat¬ 
urday. The guests take with them pro¬ 
visions—jugs of wine, a live lamb, and 
sweets—then go to the home of the bride 
to make merry. Later in the evening, the 
groom’s relatives go to the home of the 
bride, dancing on their way. When they 
reach the home to ask for the bride, they 
find the door closed. After a long conver¬ 
sation and many requests, they win the 
consent of the bride’s relatives to open the 
door, after many valuable presents are 
made. 

In the evening is performed the “ shav- 




IN ARMENIA 


83 


ing ceremony ” of the groom. He is seated 
in a chair surrounded by a chorus of boys 
who, while he is being shaved and his hair 
cut, sing the following song: 

“ Let us sing of your face, 

Your face that shines like the moon. 

Let us sing of your eyes, 

Your eyes full of fire. 

Let us sing of your teeth, 

Which resemble a row of pearls. 

Let us sing of your stature 
Tall and solid like the oak of 
the woods.” 

After the groom is shaved and his hair 
cut, his clothes are auctioned off to those 
present, and while the auction proceeds, 
the groom must needs stand there and 
shiver with cold. His wedding clothes are 
blessed, and he is then dressed in his new 
wedding clothes. This ceremony is fol¬ 
lowed by henna, that is, the maid-of-honor 
places a handful of kneaded henna on a 
plate, surrounded by twinkling candles, 
and, accompanied by others, comes to¬ 
wards the bride, dancing. The guests 


84 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


plaster the dancers’ foreheads with money 
as a sign of consent. The maid-of-honor 
then puts henna on the hands and finger 
nails of the bride, sometimes, also, on her 
toes. Later in the evening begins the cere¬ 
mony of “ hiding the bride.” The guests 
on the groom’s side come to ask for the 
bride. The request is met with resistance 
from the side of the bride. After presents 
are given, and songs sung in praise of the 
bride, she comes out of her hiding-place. 
The following is an example of the song: 

“ Come out, beautiful! 

Come out to our home! 

Whose daughter are you, 

So pretty and so bright? 

You are the daughter of the 

Brown-eyed mother; 

Your mother has given you to us; 

We have come for you. 


Come out, our bride, 

Come to us, now; 

For you are so beautiful and 
so bright! ” 


IN ARMENIA 


85 


Upon this, the parents and guests of 
the bride consent to the request of the 
groom’s party, bring the bride out of her 
hiding-place, and give her to the groom. 
At this point, the bride cries, for she does 
not want to leave her parents. But she is 
advised and directed by the mother and 
relatives to obey. At the time of giving 
the bride away, the groom holds a present 
in his closed fist (usually afive-dollar gold- 
piece) . If the maid-of-honor can open the 
groom’s fist, he is not considered a strong 
man; if she cannot (and usually she can¬ 
not), he is considered strong and brave; 
then he willingly opens his fist and gives 
her the gold-piece. 

Monday morning the guests on the 
groom’s side gather in front of the house 
of the bride. The bride and groom (each 
on horseback) ride to church amid songs 
and dances. In the church, the best man 
stands by the side of the groom with a 
naked sword in his right hand, and a cross 
in his left, his face turned towards the 


86 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


bride and the groom. After the priest 
makes his prayer, the bride and groom 
exchange rings; the bride puts her ring on 
the groom’s finger, and the groom puts his 
on the bride’s finger as a sign of un¬ 
breakable unity; then the groom places 
his right foot gently on the bride’s left 
foot until the end of the ceremony. 

During the ceremony, the priest wraps 
a red handkerchief around the groom’s 
neck and gives him a cross in his left 
hand; then the best man hangs the sword 
on the right side of the groom, who wears 
the crown of a king, and the bride that of 
the queen; thus, both are proclaimed by 
the priest as “ king ” and “ queen.” Af¬ 
ter the ceremony, the priest distributes 
blessed wine to all unmarried young men 
and young women so that they, too, may 
be blessed with the fortune of marriage. 

When all the wedding ceremonies are 
completed, the bride and groom exchange 
their horses, the groom leading. The 
reins of the bride’s horse are attached to 


IN ARMENIA 


87 


the tail of the groom’s horse so that no 
one may pass between them; for that 
would be considered a bad omen. After 
leaving the church, they ride to the 
groom’s house on horseback amid more 
dancing and singing. As soon as the 
party reaches the door, a lamb is slaugh¬ 
tered on the threshold as a sign of the 
foundation of a new home. On the way 
to the house, the groom scatters silver and 
gold coins which are diligently picked up 
by the children as fast as they fall. When 
they reach the house, the mother-in-law 
comes out to meet the bride, kisses her on 
the forehead, saying: 

“ I am iron, 

I am steel.” 

And the bride, after kissing the hand of 
her mother-in-law, answers her, in a low, 
whispering tone, from beneath her veil: 

“ Wait, until I get inside, 

You will see how I will squeeze 
the iron and steel.” 


88 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


Then the group on the bride’s side begin 
to sing to the mother-in-law the following 
song: 


“ O mother of a king, 

Come out and see 

What we have brought to you! 

We have brought a rose, 

A violet we have brought, 

We have brought a home-builder 
A helper we have brought.” 

Then the “ messengers of misfortune ”—a 
group of women—take up the following 
song: • 

“ O mother of king, 

Come out and look, 

Look what they have brought you! 

—They have brought you an 
evil thorn, 

An evil thorn to your home. 

Look what they have brought 
A home-breaker they have brought. 
Look what they have brought 
A heart-eater they have brought 
A divider of your bread they have 
brought.” 


IN ARMENIA 


89 


The mother-in-law gives presents and 
money in order to stop their bad tidings, 
and upon this, their singing is hushed. 

The bride and groom together with all 
the guests now enter the house where re¬ 
freshments are served. The bride kisses 
her mother-in-law’s hands, after which she 
offers an apple (decorated with cloves and 
candles) to the groom who, after taking 
the apple, cuts it in two with his sword, 
and offers one half to the bride, eating the 
second half himself. 

After fifteen days of marriage, the 
groom goes to visit his father-in-law. 
When he is inside the door, the mother- 
in-law throws a block of wood or the 
stump of a tree before him, at the same 
time giving him an axe. The groom di¬ 
vides the wood with two strokes, and 
leaves the axe in the groove of the block 
made by a third stroke, then enters the 
house of his mother-in-law. After a 
cordial reception, the mother-in-law places 
the key of her house before the feet of the 


90 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


groom as a sign of his being the master 
of her house. In departing, the groom, 
however, leaves the key with them, kissing 
the hands of his mother-in-law and receiv¬ 
ing her blessings for good luck and happi¬ 
ness. 

Although I have used the present tense 
in describing them, to-day the above cus¬ 
toms and ceremonies are not followed, the 
Armenians performing their marriage 
ceremonies after the custom and style of 
Europeans. 



Armenian Girl. 

In Typical National Costume 




















CHAPTER VIII 


ARMENIAN GAMES AND SPORTS 

Armenian games are different in char¬ 
acter from American games, but they are 
essentially the same everywhere in that 
they are played to give satisfaction to an 
urgent desire which is almost instinctive in 
children of all lands. 

Armenian games are few and simple; 
the sports, still fewer, and rather difficult 
to play, besides being decidedly hazardous 
in character. We had no baseball, basket¬ 
ball, nor football in Armenia. These were 
only recently introduced by American 
teachers. 

When I was eight years old, I used to 
build brick houses, wooden wheels and 
carts, in which I took my rides, and small 
tables and chairs. As I grew older, I be¬ 
gan to play first blindfold, marbles (hen- 

tag) , top (hoi ), and knuckle-bones (veh ). 

91 


92 


WEEN I WAS A BOY 


The following games were my favorites, 
as a boy in Armenia: 

Marbles. This popular game is played 
by making a circle on dry ground and each 
boy putting down one marble into it, in a 
straight line. Then, tightly holding a 
marble between the back of his thumb and 
forefinger, and standing at a distance of 
six feet from the circle, the boy shoots it 
hard and fast at the row of marbles in the 
center of the circle. If he puts out one 
or more marbles without leaving his mar¬ 
ble in the circle, he wins the marbles he 
puts out. Each boy in turn takes a shot 
at the marbles. I was very fond of this 
game, perhaps because I was more suc¬ 
cessful at it than at some of the other 
sports. We usually played marbles in the 
spring and in the fall. 

Knuckle-Bones. This game is played 
in two different ways. In one, the ob¬ 
ject is to tell one’s fortune; in the other, 
it is a pastime. The fortune-teller takes 
one knuckle-bone in his hand; before 


IN ARMENIA 


93 


throwing it on the ground, he asks you, 
however, to make a wish; you make a 
wish, and then call for the knuckle-bones 
“ heads or tails.” Upon this, the for¬ 
tune-teller throws the knuckle-bone on 
the ground. If the knuckle-bone comes 
the way you have called it, your wish will 
come true; if it does not, you will have 
“ bad luck.” 

A second way of playing knuckle-bones 
is to make a circle, say two feet in diame¬ 
ter, placing in the center of the circle in 
a straight line as many knuckle-bones as 
there are players. One of the players be¬ 
gins to shoot at the knuckle-bones with 
another knuckle-bone, from a distance of 
ten feet. The purpose is to hit those in 
the circle, and hit them hard enough so as 
to put them out of the circle, being care¬ 
ful that your knuckle does not remain in 
the circle; if it does, you are proclaimed 
“ dead ” ; you lose your knuckle-bone and 
are whisked out of the game to wait until 
a new game is begun. The knuckle-bones 


94 


WHEN I WAS A HOT 


which are used for throwing purposes are 
usually loaded with lead so that they may 
fly fast through the air and strike hard at 
the knuckle-bones inside the circle. 

Shar Bar an. This game is played in the 
following way: The boys fall in a circle by 
joining their little fingers together, and 
leaving spaces between the boys. Two 
boys stand in the center of the circle. One 
of them is called “ cat,” the other “ mou^e.” 
The “ mouse ” begins the game by gently 
tapping the “ cat ” on the shoulder and 
running through one of the openings of 
the circle. The “ cat ” then rurjs after the 
“ mouse ” with the purpose of catching the 
latter. The “ mouse ” runs through one 
opening and then another, making a zig- 
zag run all around the circle; the “ cat ” 
has to follow the “ mouse ” carefully; if it 
catches the “ mouse,” they change posi¬ 
tions. This is a very interesting game and 
it requires a great deal of ingenuity to 
follow the trail of the “ mouse ” carefully. 

Tutusli. One boy stands at the base, 


IN ARMENIA 


95 


and with a club gently hits a piece of stick, 
sharp at each end and about five inches 
long; the stick flies in the air and, while it 
is flying, the boy strikes it again with the 
club with all his strength. So the stick 
flies high, fast and far in the air. There 
are several boys in the field; any one who 
catches the stick as it drops goes to the 
base to hit it. This may also be called 
“ one-man baseball.” 

Gap. (G is hard and a is sounded like 
the French a.) Twelve small, flat pebbles 
are placed in the palm, then gently thrown 
in the air and caught on the back of the 
hand, being careful lest one of them falls 
to the ground; if it does, the player loses 
his chance and his opponent takes his turn 
with great zest. 

Gegoudge . (The first two g’s are hard 
and the last soft.) The players of this 
game must have from twenty-five to fifty 
English walnuts. A hole is dug in the 
ground, usually near the bottom of a wall. 
One player takes charge of the hole—he is 


96 WHEN I A BOY 

called the “ banker.” From a distance of 
five to six feet, the players in turn throw 
walnuts, with both palms of the hand, into 
the hole. If they get an even number of 
walnuts in the hole, they receive that 
many walnuts from the “ banker ”; if the 
number of walnuts is odd, they lose them 
all to the “ banker.” Usually there is a 
great deal of quarreling over the right 
count of these walnuts. 

Ala Peshdig. All pla} r ers sit on the 
ground forming a circle. One of the boys, 
holding a knotted handkerchief in his 
hand, goes around the circle and secretly 
drops it behind one of them; he keeps on 
going around until he reaches the same 
fellow behind whom he left the handker¬ 
chief; if the boy is not aware, the runner 
takes the handkerchief and hits him on the 
back until the fellow, who receives the 
strikes, makes a full circle and sits back in 
his seat. 

Shoror-Medz Bar an. Two rows of 
boys, standing opposite each other, move 


IN ARMENIA 


97 


backward and forward by clapping their 
hands. 

Kar-Tir (slinging). Two or more boys 
aim at a mark some distance away and 
sling at it; the one who hits the mark wins 
the game. 

Dempig. One boy is chosen by cast¬ 
ing lots. The boys gather round him; one 
of them suddenly hits him in the back and 
runs away. The boy who was hit runs 
after him. If he catches him before some¬ 
one else hits him, the one caught is placed 
in his position; if not, he is kept running 
after each boy who hits him last. Each 
time he has to run after the one who hits 
him last. 

Tsatgerdan or Esh-Khaghoog (jump¬ 
ing or donkey game). A point is agreed 
upon on the ground. Each player jumps 
to that point; the one who does not suc¬ 
ceed in jumping to that point stoops low, 
and the rest of the boys jump over him. 
The boy gradually raises himself up to the 
point where he stands at his full height, ex- 


98 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


cept that his head is bent forward. If any 
one of the boys fails to jump over him at 
this height, he takes his place; if all the 
boys succeed, then the leader places a 
handkerchief on his back, being careful 
while jumping that it stays there; the 
rest of the boys follow him, one by one; 
whoever drops the handkerchief takes his 
place. 

Tops. Three or four boys spin their 
tops on the ground; the top that stops 
spinning first is proclaimed “ dead ” and 
placed on the ground. Each boy takes a 
shot at the “ dead ” top with his top. In 
throwing your top you have to aim at it 
with the purpose of hitting it; while your 
top is spinning, you pick it up in the palm 
of your hand, and, lifting it to the height 
of your belt, drop it carefully on the 
“ dead” top. You should not miss it; if 
you do, you will have to place your top on 
the ground. Those tops which are not 
well aimed are usually full of holes made 
by the winning tops. It is a mark of dis- 


IN ARMENIA 


99 


tinction, in this game, to have a top with¬ 
out peg-holes. 

Sports 

These are usually played by grown-up 
persons. 

Djirid. Two groups of men, on horse¬ 
back, stand in two opposite camps half a 
mile distant from each other. Each man on 
horseback has a long stick in his hand. One 
of the group rides on his horse to the enemy 
camp and challenges them by throwing 
his stick at them, with an intention to hit. 
He is responded to quickly enough by a 
man on horseback from the enemy camp, 
who charges upon the challenger and 
chases him back to his camp, trying to 
overtake him and hitting him with his 
stick; or, if he cannot overtake him, and 
is a “ good shot,” he throws his stick, like 
a javelin, flying through the air after his 
opponent. As soon as he reaches the 
boundaries of the enemy camp, he is at¬ 
tacked by a new man on horseback; then 


100 WHEN I WAS A BOY 

he turns his horse around and runs back 
home. The chaser repeats the same thing. 
The side that makes the most hits wins the 
game. This is a very exciting and haz¬ 
ardous sport. Only good horseback riders 
X)lay. During the play, there is music in 
both camps. 

Wrestling . Wrestling is a well-liked 
sport in which all young men indulge with 
great zest and vigor. It is generally held 
in the open in the presence of a great 
crowd. One man challenges the whole 
crowd in a loud voice, saying that there is 
no one who can wrestle him. In every 
case, the challenger meets an opponent, 
because among the Armenians it is con¬ 
sidered poor sport not to take up a chal¬ 
lenge. The wrestlers wear tights which 
reach from the waist to the knees. The 
rest of the body is naked, and in some 
cases oiled. 

Wrestling and djirid are usually played 
on holidays and Sundays. 

When I was a boy, I was very fond of 







SOPIWJJ.P U.VM'U.'bhh 


■swzzfse 


•i£ l, lllafli tT~j t -A *^*-*;~* * ^-i At 




«»I 


General Antranik. 

The National Hero of the Armenians. 




























































































IN ARMENIA 


101 


wrestling and wrestling stories. I have 
heard stories about an Armenian called 
“ Simon the Lion,” who could down any¬ 
body in wrestling. There are many stories 
about him, but the following is one of the 
best: 

Once, when Simon was sitting in front 
of his house, a champion wrestler who had 
heard about “ Simon the Lion ” came to 
find him in his home town. He met Simon 
sitting in front of his house, his back 
against the wall and whittling a stick; this 
champion told Simon, without knowing 
who he was, that he had come to wrestle 
“ Simon the Lion ” and he wanted to 
know where he could find him. Simon 
said to him: “ If you lift one of my legs 
from off the ground, I will tell you where 
he is.” Scornfully the champion stooped 
to lift Simon’s left foot with one hand, 
but not being able to lift it, tried with 
both hands. Upon seeing that it was im¬ 
possible for him to lift Simon’s leg, he at 
once “ came to ” himself, and said, “ So 


102 


WEEN I WAS A BOY 


you are Simon the Lion; you really are 
strong; I came to wrestle with you, but 
I now see that I have been a fool.” With 
these words in his mouth he left the town. 
It is said that once, when Simon got 
angry, he grasped cows and horses and 
threw them over a six-foot wall. He is 
said to have been so strong and tough that 
he could plough the ground with his feet. 


CHAPTER IX 


NATIVE INDUSTRIES 

Armenia was once one of the earliest 
centers of world civilization, learning, com¬ 
merce, and wealth, and at the close of the 
sixth century, exceedingly wealthy and 
prosperous. Great centers of population 
and commerce existed in Armenia, and the 
fame of its cities and products had spread 
over the then known world. Its decay be¬ 
gan with the invasions of the Persians, and 
was hastened by those of the Arabs. What 
the Persians and Arabs began, the Sel- 
juks and Ottoman Turks completed. 
From that time on, the economic and in¬ 
dustrial condition of Armenia has steadily 
become worse. The great industrial cen¬ 
ters no longer exist; commerce languished 
and finally almost expired. Agriculture 
has also greatly suffered from the disap¬ 
pearance of the Armenian peasants from 
the soil. 


103 


104 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


To-day there are few native industries, 
few handicrafts, and even these are con¬ 
fined to very humble limits. 

In the following pages I shall endeavor 
to give all the Armenian industries I have 
seen as a boy in my home town: 

Rug-Making 

Rug-making is the most prosperous of 
the Armenian industries, because there is 
a great demand in Europe and America 
for the beautiful rugs made by Armenians. 
The rugs made in individual looms are 
woven by hand, very tedious work. The 
worker is obliged to make a loop and a 
knot each time he proceeds. It takes from 
one to six months or a year for one man 
to make a good rug. Some rugs take two 
years for completion. But these rugs are 
well made, and last for generations with¬ 
out much fading or signs of wear. The 
more worn they are, the more valuable 
they become. 


IN ARMENIA 


105 


Silk 

The silk industry is second in impor¬ 
tance. The work of raising the cocoon and 
the worm is all done under one roof. 
There are large tracts of land planted with 
mulberry-trees upon whose leaves feed the 
silkworms. I have visited many silkworm 
nurseries, and found it very interesting 
and instructive to watch the silkworms 
feed on the mulberry-tree leaves and spin 
their cocoons around themselves. When 
you watch two or three thousand silk¬ 
worms feeding, you will hear a weird music 
made by the rasping of their mouths. 

Looms 

In our city we had two factories en¬ 
gaged in making plain lining for clothes. 
The clothes that we wore were generally 
made by men who had looms in their 
houses. These men bought their own ma¬ 
terial, made clothes, and sold the garments 
directly to the merchants. We have no 


10G 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


machinery for separating the cotton from 
the cone; it is all separated by hand. 

Dye-Houses 

These are one-story mud-brick build¬ 
ings. If you visit the inside of a dye- 
house, you will see many large earthen 
tanks in a row, each set upon a small fire¬ 
place. Each tank contains a different 
color. The dyer takes the plain cloth and 
dips it into that tank filled with boiling 
dye; after the cloth is thoroughly soaked 
with the color, it is taken out, wrung, and 
spread on the ground outside the house 
to dry. Very amusing is it to see red, blue, 
yellow, and green dyed clothes spread on 
the ground side by side. The dyer’s hands 
bear all the colors of the rainbow; even his 
finger nails are decorated. The color 
never comes out; he eats with stained 
hands, and dyes with stained hands. Hence 
the dyer is always to be distinguished 
by his hands; in fact all artisans may be 
distinguished by their hands. 


IN ARMENIA 


107 


Shoemaking 

V 

There are no shoe factories in Armenia. 
An entire street in my city was devoted to 
shoemakers and cobblers. They work in 
one-story shops which open directly on 
the street. All shoes are made by hand. 
There are no shoe stores; if you want to 
buy shoes, you have to go to the shoemaker 
and have them made to order. Besides 
the regular shoes, we have another kind 
which is made entirely of soft leather, 
called yemeni, with a tail in the back. It 
is very interesting to watch the shoemaker 
and especially the bootmaker work at his 
bench sewing, nailing, and taking the 
shoes out of their lasts. Our boots are 
larger and reach to our knees. I have 
seen bootmakers take hold of the top of 
the boot between their teeth and push the 
last out with their hands. Instead of iron 
stands, the Armenian shoemaker, when 
nailing the sole on the shoe, saddles the 
shoe on his knee, and, with a piece of 


108 


WEEN I WAS A BOY, 


leather strap tied to his foot, he holds the 
shoe firm while pounding it with a hammer. 

Goldsmithing 

Goldsmiths occupy an entire street by 
themselves, and work diligently on jewelry 
and watches. They are very skilful in 
their trade, and can engrave on gold, sil¬ 
ver, bronze, and wood; some of their work 
Europeans consider very beautiful art. 

Dry-Goods Merchants 

These tradesmen occupy a particular 
street. It is very amusing to see them in 
their stores on a busy day, measuring cloth 
with their yardsticks; they are very fast 
and clever with the yardstick. The prices 
are not marked on goods for sale; hence 
there is a great deal of haggling, and a 
great deal of time and effort lost in mak¬ 
ing the sale. 

Ironsmiths 

These, also, occupy a street of their 
own. Of all the artisans, they are the 


IN ARMENIA 


109 


earliest to rise and begin work. Quite 
often have I been awakened by the music 
of their hammer and anvil. I always loved 
to hear that ding-dong, ding-dong pierc¬ 
ing the clear quiet of the morning. When 
I was a boy I was very much impressed 
by them, and often watched them at work, 
trying to catch the flying sparks from the 
red-hot iron. I liked to fancy these iron- 
smiths as Olympian gods making iron 
chains for their captives. 

Blacksmiths 

These are on another street. They 
make their own nails and iron shoes. The 
horses ready to be shod stand in a row on 
the outside of the shop. The shoeing is 
done in the following manner: The ap¬ 
prentice throws a rope around the ankle 
of the foot to be shod, lifts it up, and holds 
it in place against his loins while the mas¬ 
ter puts on the shoe. The blacksmith’s 
trade is a very hazardous one in Armenia; 
many men have received deadly kicks from 


110 WHEN I WAS A BOY 

i 

the horses, and others have been disabled 
for life. 


Dairies 

There are no scientific dairies in Ar¬ 
menia. Milk, cream, cheese, and butter 
are prepared on the farm by the Armenian 
peasants and brought to the city on mar¬ 
ket days, where they are sold to the peo¬ 
ple. Then, with his money in his pocket, 
the peasant farmer buys agricultural 
necessities and returns to his farm. 

Wool and Cotton 

The preparation of wool and the rais¬ 
ing of cotton are done by hand. 

Seeds and Cereals 

A great part of this industry is carried 
on in different centers of Armenia, and 
oil extracted from the seeds. 



Armenian Peasant Women Churning Butter. 











CHAPTER X 


ARMENIAN HEROES AND HEROINES 

My purpose in writing this chapter is 
twofold. In the first place I believe that 
all boys like heroes and are enthusiastic 
and eager to know all about them. As a 
boy, I was very fond of reading books on 
heroes of all nationalities; with great zest 
and delight have I re-read Carlyle’s book 
called “ Heroes and Hero Worship.” I ad¬ 
vise all intelligent American boys to read 
it. Secondly, I want to write this chapter 
because of the misrepresentation of Arme¬ 
nian bravery and courage by some un- 
authoritative, especially hired Europeans. 

Long and splendid is the chain of Ar¬ 
menian heroes and heroines, from the 
founder of our nation, Haig, to the great 
World War. It is outside the scope of this 
little book, and would take a separate 

volume to treat this subject exhaustively. 

Ill 


112 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


I shall not even go as far back as the time 
of the Byzantine Empire when the best 
and the most courageous soldiers were 
chosen from among the Armenians for the 
Imperial Guard. I shall give here only 
heroes and heroines whose deeds of 
bravery, indomitable courage, and self- 
sacrifice have become famous in the last 
fifty years. 

On another page of this book, the reader 
will see in pictures proof of my statement. 
These pictures have been taken from 
actual photographs; furthermore, a few 
of these persons are still living. 

It is a truth apparent that there must 
be an actual occasion or a condition of life, 
plus an incentive which spurs men and 
women on to heroic actions. Such condi¬ 
tions gave France Jean d’Arc, England 
the Duke of Wellington, and the United 
States Washington and Paul Revere. 

The Armenians’ bitter struggle for free¬ 
dom against the Turks has served as an 
occasion to give rise to many heroes and 


IN ARMENIA 113 

heroines among the Armenian people dur¬ 
ing the last fifty years. 

I shall begin my story with General 
Antranik, the greatest and most beloved 
Armenian hero of recent times. This 
man was a carpenter by trade. When 
only twenty-four years old, he saw the in¬ 
justice, robberies, and crimes committed 
by the Turks against the Armenians, so 
left his work and tools behind to devote 
himself to fight for the freedom of his 
people. In thirty-five years of military 
service with a group of volunteers, he has 
had three hundred encounters and over 
fifty actual battles with regular Turkish 
forces. In no one of his battles has he re¬ 
ceived a scratch. During the fight, while 
men fell on his right and on his left, he 
seemed miraculously protected from the 
bullets of the enemy. With his men in 
the trenches, he was always seen in the 
field, sword in hand, always spurring on, 
inspiring, and leading his men. 

Antranik was a great and sincere ex- 


114 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


ample to his soldiers; all his men liked 
him and revered him to the point of wor¬ 
ship. He has fought for days without 
food and shelter, many times storming 
and taking by surprise Turkish forces 
larger than his own. On many a night, he 
passed in disguise through the Turkish 
lines unawares. 

It was General Antranik who, in the 
World War, held the Turkish and Ger¬ 
man forces at bay for six months in the 
Caucasus, thus preventing them from 
reaching the rich oil wells of Russia. For 
his bravery, courage, and fighting ability, 
he has been decorated by the Armenian, 
Russian, and Bulgarian governments, and 
greatly respected and honored by the Eng¬ 
lish government. 

Next to him comes “ the Lion of Da- 
ron,” who, with his wife and two sons, 
fought for three days and nights against 
two hundred regular Turkish soldiers un¬ 
til all his ammunition gave out and he, 
with his two sons, was killed by the enemy. • 


IN ARMENIA 


115 


After him we have Shake, an Armenian 
heroine, who, after her husband was killed, 
and with her child in her arms, fought the 
Turkish soldiers from a mountain refuge 
until all her ammunition gave out. Fear 
of capture caused her to tie the babe to 
her body and throw herself down the preci¬ 
pice in order not to surrender to the enemy! 

Another heroine is Miss Dikranian. 
Only a young girl, during the World War, 
when the Armenians were being deported 
from their homes for joining the Allies, she 
joined the Armenian volunteer army, and, 
single-handed, killed eighty Turkish sol¬ 
diers. She is in America and I have seen 
her personally. She is now married and 
lives in the United States. 

There are many other Armenian heroes 
and heroines, but unfortunately, I cannot 
devote more space to them in this little 
volume. These of whom I have told should 
give the reader an adequate idea of the 
heroism of so small a nation as one of 
4,000,000 people. 


CHAPTER XI 


ARMENIAN RITES AND CEREMONIES 

New Year's Eve 

New Year’s Eve is the most desirable 
of evenings, so every Armenian boy will 
tell you, for it is a day of genuine good 
time for all the youngsters. 

New Year’s Eve is not celebrated in 
Armenia as it is in America. Each Ar¬ 
menian family celebrates New Year’s Eve 
within the home. After supper, the fire¬ 
place is used and a fire kept burning un¬ 
til after midnight, so that, light being the 
sign of life, the family life may be con¬ 
tinuous and bright. In the center of the 
room is put up a large table upon which 
are set dishes of raisins, nuts, and sweets 
( basdegh , rojik ). The boys and girls eat 
what they can, and fill their pockets with 
what is left. While the celebration is go¬ 
ing on, the neighbors, one at a time, lower 

116 


IN ARMENIA 


117 


through the chimney a basket full of 
goodies. No one knows who is our Santa 
Claus. After dividing among us the con¬ 
tents of the basket, it is our turn to do 
the same thing to our neighbors, so that 
every family has its Santa Claus every 
New Year’s Eve. 

All this struck me very curiously. Many 
a time have I run to the roof of our house 
to see who it was that lowered the basket 
through the chimney; but, unfortunately, 
each time I was too late, as I found the 
end of the rope tied to the chimney, and 
that the person had disappeared. In fact, 
no one ever did catch our invisible and 
evasive Santa Claus. 

Christmas 

The Christmas ceremonies are more 
elaborate, and religiously regarded. All 
school-children and boys anxi 
Christmas because of the long vacation, 
and more especially on account of the car¬ 
nivals that are held on the streets. On 


ously await 


118 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


holidays we used to go to a bear-wrestling 
match. The bear is muzzled, the man wres¬ 
tling him in the open in the presence of a 
large crowd. The wrestler generally knows 
his tricks well, and is very careful that the 
bear doesn’t give him a famous “ bear- 
hug.” Many wrestlers have suffered a 
broken back after a bear wrestle for not 
being careful. To wrestle a bear is dan¬ 
gerous sport; it takes a very strong and 
clever young man. In the face of all dan¬ 
gers, however, young Armenians still do 
wrestle him, and strange to say, I have 
seen men who have downed the bear in a 
single wrestle. The bear is always chained 
from his nostrils by a ring which is un¬ 
hooked during the tussle. Sometimes the 
bear used to run wild and so cause a great 
deal of excitement among the crowd, be¬ 
sides alarming his master. 

On Christmas morning all the Arme¬ 
nians go to church, and after dinner begin 
the customary visits and greetings of the 
season. Usually two of the members of 


IN ARMENIA 


119 


the family stay at home to receive the 
visitors while the others make the calls; 
then they change their turn so that, dur¬ 
ing the three days of greeting, all neigh¬ 
bors are able to visit each other. The visi¬ 
tor enters the house saying, “ Greetings! 
Christ is born! ” The host replies, “ Greet¬ 
ings to the whole world! ” Upon this, the 
visitor is received with respect, and enter¬ 
tained with refreshments. 

We have no Christmas tree and do not 
exchange presents on Christmas day. Our 
Santa Claus comes on New Year’s Eve 
instead of Christmas Eve, for Christmas 
is a sacred day and is passed with greet¬ 
ings and festivals of joy. 

In the spring, we fast for forty days 
before Easter, during which time we 
strictly abstain from meat and fish. 

On the evening preceding Easter morn¬ 
ing, we break our fasts. It is a great day 
of feasting, and on this occasion we pre¬ 
pare elaborate meals. On Easter morning 
we go to church, and following an Easter 


120 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


dinner, greetings are exchanged after the 
fashion of Christmas celebration. The 
visitor greets the host saying, “ Christ has 
risen from the dead! ” To which the host 
replies, “ Blessed be the resurrection of 
Christ!” After the greetings are over, 
the people gather in an open place where 
wrestling and djirit games are held. 

The great pastime on Easter day is 
“ egg-fighting.” There are hard-boiled- 
egg sellers in the amusement place. Two 
young men buy a dozen or more of these 
vari-colored eggs, place them in a row, 
squat on the ground, then each takes an 
egg from one end, with which they begin 
the fight. That one who holds in his hand 
the last unbroken egg wins and collects 
the entire dozen. I have seen men carry 
home a whole basketful of eggs in triumph. 

On the Day of the Transfiguration of 
Christ our custom is to throw cold water 
on each other. We do this amid great 
laughter and joy. On this day i>eople 
usually wear their old clothes. I have seen 


IN ARMENIA 


121 


many forgetful persons (wearing new 
clothes) thoroughly drenched. It is a very 
amusing picture to see young men dash¬ 
ing pails of water upon each other. On 
this day, also, we build bonfires, and 
dance around them. Many young men 
consider it great fun and a clever thing 
to jump over the bonfire, but through such 
daring there have been those who have 
fallen into the fire and been badly burned. 






CHAPTER XII 

COUNTRY AND CITY 

The Country 

The Armenian countryside is beauti¬ 
ful indeed; peace and quietness reign here. 
And a visitor will find the Armenian 
farmer very hospitable; he will put out all 
his good things before his guest, insisting 
that he enjoy them and feel at home. His 
industry springs from a sincere love of the 
soil, a firm attachment to it. From early 
in the morning he works until after sun¬ 
set, and his work, rough yet pleasant, is 
begun with a prayer. He ploughs the 
ground with oxen and a wooden plough, 
always singing or whistling the while. 
We have many songs of the plough, but 
I shall give only that one most charac¬ 
teristic of the spirit of the Armenian 
farmer: 


122 



Following the Method used for Generations. 












/ 
















IN ARMENIA 


123 


“ Lo! the golden sun is risen, 

Warm and clear is the day. 

Plough, plough, lovely oxen, 

Quickly plough the field 

So that our neighbors do not say 

Lazy are my oxen. 

“ When winter comes we shall have no 
fears; 

Happily will pass our days; 

Plenty shall be our provisions 
Full and satisfied we shall be; 

Plough, plough, deeply plough, my 
dear oxen.” 

The Armenian farmer thirsts for edu¬ 
cation, and each and every Armenian vil- 
lage or town, no matter how poor, has its 
own schoolhouse. The schoolmaster, al¬ 
though his pay is trivial, is nevertheless 
the most prominent person in the village; 
usually he has his own land upon which 
he works during his spare time, so as to 
supplement his income. The Armenian 
farmer is not only hospitable, industrious, 
and a lover of education, but, above all, 
he is religious. Every farming community 


124 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


has its own church, and a very common 
sight is that of the priest, after morning 
services in the church, working in the field 
to earn part of his living and that of his 
family. 

The farmer’s wife is just as industrious, 
and works as hard as her husband. It is 
indeed a wholesome picture to see her 
churning the milk in a skin bag or wooden 
jug hung from a wooden tripod; her 
daughter sitting on a little stool, milking 
the cow, and her son bringing the cattle 
from the fields at dusk. 

There is no farming machinery on our 
farms. Sowing, reaping, and all the rest 
is done by hand. Quite often, at harvest 
time, I have watched the farmer reap the 
wheat with his sickle and scythe, large 
drops of sweat rolling down his cheeks, 
the water-boy whisking the pail from 
reaper to reaper. It has always been a 
source of inspiration to me to watch the 
farmer work and sing in his fields. 

Ours is a farmer who sows the seed by 


IN ARMENIA 


125 


hand from his apron. When the wheat is 
ripe, it is reaped by a hand sickle and made 
into trusses to be set upright in the field 
row by row. Dried bunches of wheat with 
the chaff are then spread upon dry ground, 
and the oxen drag over the grain a shaft, 
the bottom of which is covered with sharp 
flints. By this method, the farmer pul¬ 
verizes the straw, which is later thrown up 
with a wooden shovel against the wind; 
the heavier grain falls to the ground by 
force of gravitation, and the lighter chaff 
is driven on a little farther by the wind. 
He repeats this process until all the grain 
is freed from the chaff. The chaff is saved 
to feed his cattle and horses, while the 
grain, after being washed and the stones 
and dirt removed by a sifter, is stored 
away in large underground wells and 
securely covered for the winter. 

The Armenian shepherd is a very pic¬ 
turesque person, brave and care-free. He 
loves his herd, his big watch-dog, and his 
flute ( serink) made of reed. At noon 


126 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


this flute calls the herd to water, and in 
the evening it gathers them together and 
leads them home. While the herd is graz¬ 
ing, shepherds play for their own amuse¬ 
ment. They are generally quite musical. 

I was very fond of the flute, and often 
with my boy companions have I gone to 
the shepherd and asked him to play on his 
flute. A jolly good fellow, he would never 
refuse my request. Sometimes these shep¬ 
herds would come to the city, and earn a 
few coins by playing the flute in the mar¬ 
ket-places, bazaars, and city squares. The 
Armenian shepherd lives out in the open 
in a little hut, leads a very simple life, and 
eats simple food. He is well known for 
longevity. 


The City 

Our cities differ greatly from American 
cities. Our streets are crooked and nar¬ 
row, with narrow sidewalks made of cob¬ 
blestones; on rainy days they are very 
muddy, and on other days very dusty. Al- 


I 







iJ&ftfpjigi 




V-- i 


■ : r 




Armenian Shepherd. 

Alone, but Happy with his Flock 













IN ARMENIA 127 

most all the Armenian houses are built of 
sun-baked mud bricks, square in shape, 
flat-roofed, and usually do not rise above 
three stories in height. The houses are 
joined to each other or separated by a 
narrow lane, so that one can easily jump 
from housetop to housetop. Many a time, 
while flying a kite—they were especially 
convenient for this purpose—I have run 
a distance of two or three blocks over 
housetops. Because I used to fly kites and 
sing in the meantime, I was spoken of in 
the neighborhood as “ the happiest boy ” 
in our section. 

In my home town, the streets had no 
signs, the houses no numbers. We had no 
electric illumination; the streets were dark 
and dangerous at night. On each street 
corner, attached to the house, was a kero¬ 
sene lamp which offered a feeble and dim 
light at night. After sunset these lamps 
were lit by a lamplighter, who hurried 
from one corner to another with a ladder 
on his back and a torch in his hand. 




128 WEEN I WAS A BOY 

We had three bazaars—the wheat ba¬ 
zaar, where they sold wheat, the vegetable 
bazaar, where they sold fruits and vegeta¬ 
bles, and the merchandise bazaar, where 
they sold dry-goods. As I intimated in a 
previous chapter, different streets were 
assigned to different artisans; shoemakers 
were on one street, which was called “ shoe¬ 
makers’ street,” dry-goods merchants on 
another, and so on. There was no system 
of walking on the street; you could keep 
to the right or left just as you pleased, so 
that pedestrians were always getting in 
each other’s way. You would think it a 
miracle if you saw how one finds his way 
out of this tangle. While walking on the 
street you will see a cab-driver, standing 
in his two-wheeled car driven by one horse, 
dashing down the street at breakneck 
speed, making his way through the mob 
crying, “Make way! Make way!” all 
the while keeping his horse whipped up. 

Every Wednesday was bazaar day in 
my home town. If you should ever visit 



IN ARMENIA 


129 


my home town, Adana, on a bazaar day, 
you will be charmed at its picturesque¬ 
ness. In the bazaar you will see perhaps 
a dozen heavily veiled women, squatting 
or sitting on little stools, selling sour milk 
( madzoon ), or the pedlar, with a square 
board hung from his neck by a leather 
strap, selling stockings and handkerchiefs 
in all colors. In the thick of the crowd you 
will come upon the most interesting of fig¬ 
ures—the burden-carrier ( hamal )—with a 
hundred to five hundred pounds of mer¬ 
chandise or what-not on his back, and held 
by a hand-hook, as he advances slowly with 
firm steps, crying out, “ Make way! Make 
way!” On account of the lack of other 
means of conveyance, these men carry 
goods from one place to another and for 
only a few pennies. They are the hap¬ 
piest men in town; no cares, no worries. 
They live from day to day, from hand to 
mouth. 

It was always great fun for me, when I 
was about ten years old, to try to zigzag 


130 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


through the mob without being bumped 
by hurrying pedestrians. I had done this 
so often that I soon became an expert, so 
that it was just as easy for me to walk 
zigzag fashion and find my way, as to walk 
in a straight line. Incidentally, it was 
very good football practice. 

I remember in Adana hearing the cry 
of a man who sold saldeb for breakfast. 
Sahleb is a white, starchy, liquid food pre¬ 
pared from a root. His cries were fol¬ 
lowed by the calls of the man who sold 
cheurek (the Armenian doughnut). Later 
in the morning or in the afternoon came 
the cries of the pedlar who sold the mer¬ 
chandise on his back. He used to sing a 
song of praise about his goods, and he 
traveled from house to house. He w T as fol¬ 
lowed by the call of the wool-carder, who 
carried a large wooden bow on his back and 
a round-headed short club in his hand. 
Quite often have I called him into our yard 
to card the wool of our beddings. (Arme¬ 
nian families sun their bedding once a 


IN ARMENIA 


131 


week, and take out the wool, wash it, dry it, 
and have it carded twice a year.) The 
wool-carder places the tight string of the 
bow in the pile of the wool, holding the 
bow with his left hand, while with his right 
he strikes the club on the string. The 
vibration of the string cards the wool into 
the desired fine tufts. 

We also had a “man with the bear” 
who traveled from street to street with a 
drum on his back and a bear with a ring 
in his nostril following behind, tied to a 
rope, the other end of which was in the 
hand of the master. This minstrel played 
his drum while boys and girls gathered 
round to watch the bear perform tricks 
and collect the coins. Sometimes this man 
cured colds, and he did it in this way: 
Placing a flat board on the ground, he 
asked the man with the cold (in his back 
or joints) to lie down flat on his stomach 
on the board. The “ doctor ” then pulled 
the bear over the prostrate figure, where¬ 
upon the bear stepped “ lightly ” or 


132 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


“ heavily,” as his master directed, on the 
region affected. After the bear was 
through with this operation the man got 
up “ feeling warm and fine ”—cured of his 
cold! 

Then we had a “ snake-charmer ” who 
appeared with a horn and a bag of snakes 
hung from his left side. When we heard 
his weird-sounding horn, we knew that 
the snake-charmer was in the street, and 
soon a circle formed around him. He took 
all kinds of snakes out of his bag, wrapped 
them around his neck, or covered his 
breast with them. Sometimes he would 
make one of the snakes bite his thumb 
until it bled; this demonstrated to us 
that he was immune against snake bites. 
He would promise to make immune 
against snake bites in a like manner any 
one who wished it. While the snake was 
biting your finger, he would recite a 
prayer, and after you had bled, he would 
sprinkle a white powder on your thumb, 
and wrap it up in a cloth, and presto! you 


IN ARMENIA 


133 


were “ immune,” and allowed to take his 
snakes in your hands or wrap them around 
your neck as much as you liked. Of 
course the poisonous fangs of all these 
snakes had been carefully removed. 

Dogs in Adana have no home; they run 
loose in the street, and hang around the 
butcher-shops to feed. In the evening they 
sleep in open places. Each neighborhood 
has its own dogs, and the dogs of one 
neighborhood would chase away the dogs 
of another neighborhood. In the spring¬ 
time one would see packs of dogs make 
for the vineyard to eat grapes. Many 
times have I seen these animals return 
from the vineyards, while others passed 
them on their way to enjoy the sweet pro¬ 
duce of our vineyards. 


CHAPTER XIII 


ARMENIA 

Armenia is a familiar word to Ameri¬ 
cans, but not so its location. I have come 
in contact with many American boys and 
even mature persons who did not know 
where Armenia was; hence I do not think 
it superfluous—rather illuminating—to 
give here the location and boundaries of 
my native land. 

Armenia is a table-land in Asia Minor, 
about six thousand feet above sea level. 
On the north, it is bound by the Caucasian 
Mountains; on the east, by the Caspian 
Sea; on the south, it embraces northern 
Mesopotamia; on the west, it borders the 
southern end of the Black Sea and, with 
a gentle curve, descends southward to the 
Mediterranean Sea. Its area in round 

numbers is about 150,000 square miles. 

134 



IN ARMENIA 


135 


Armenia is the most beautiful country 
in the world; perhaps it was for this rea¬ 
son that God selected this land for His 
Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve, 
our first ancestors, made their original 
abode. Armenia is called “ the cradle of 
the human race,” or “ the land of man’s 
origin,” meaning that God first created 
Adam and Eve and placed them in the 
Garden of Eden, from where their chil¬ 
dren multiplied and spread throughout 
the world. Mount Ararat, upon which 
Noah’s Ark rested after the great deluge, 
is also in Armenia. Mount Ararat, with 
its robe of clouds and crown of a diadem 
of snow dazzling in the bright rays of the 
sun, is the monarch of all the surround¬ 
ing mountains. The colors of her majes¬ 
tic aspect change with each changing 
light of the day, and fill the hearts of 
poets and artists with unbounded joy and 
inspiration. 

Furthermore, if the reader will open his 
Bible and read (Genesis 2:10, 11), he 


136 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


will see the names of four rivers, Pison, 
Gihon, Hiddekel, and Phrat, all of which 
have their origin in Armenia. The last 
two rivers, Phrat and Hiddekel, have been 
conclusively identified with the rivers, 
Euphrates and Tigris, which have their 
origin in the mountains of Upper Ar¬ 
menia. To this proof I am going to add 
my humble opinion, and ask if the third 
river, Gihon, mentioned in Genesis 2: 10, 
11, cannot be identified with the River 
Sihoom, which runs through my home 
town, Adana, Cilicia in Lesser Armenia. 

If you take a journey through Ar¬ 
menia, a majestic panorama of nature will 
unfold before your eyes: fertile valleys 
and beautiful hills, fruitful plains, green 
pasture lands, lovely gardens and vine¬ 
yards, shimmering lakes and snow-capped, 
lofty mountains—in brief, a charming and 
peaceful landscape absorbs your imagina¬ 
tion. You become entranced and will say, 
“ Lo, this is trulv the Garden of Eden! ” 

No traveler, who has ever seen Ararat, 


IN ARMENIA 


137 


has failed to sjDeak of the reaction to 
its unsurpassing beauty, magnificence, 
and grandeur. We Armenians know it 
as “ Mother Ararad,” because, for cen¬ 
turies, it has been our home, and again, 
because it contains the sources of all great 
rivers, especially those of the Euphrates 
and Tigris, which enclose within them a 
fertile valley, where the first agrarian 
civilization began. 

Let me give my reader the following 
description by an English traveler, who 
came to Armenia and observed Mount 
Ararat with his own eyes: “ The impres¬ 
sion made by Ararat upon the mind of 
every one who has any sensibility of the 
stupendous works of the creator is won¬ 
derful and overpowering. Many a traveler 
of genius and taste has employed both the 
power of the pen and the pencil in at¬ 
tempting to portray this impression, but 
the consciousness that no description, no 
representation can reach the supremacy of 
the object thus attempted to be depicted 


138 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


must prove to the candid mind that, 
whether we address the ear or eye, it is 
difficult to avoid the poetic in expression 
and the exaggerated in form and confine 
ourselves strictly within the bounds of 
consistency and truth. 

“ Nothing can be more beautiful than 
its shape, nothing more awful than its 
height. All the surrounding mountains 
sink into insignificance when compared to 
it. It is perfect in all its parts; no hard, 
rugged features, no unnatural promi¬ 
nence; everything is in harmony, and all 
combined to render it one of the sublimest 
objects in nature.” 

The height of Mount Ararat is 17,000 
feet above sea level, and it can be seen 
with the naked eye from a distance of 145 
to 155 miles. At a little distance from it 
stands Little Ararat, which is likewise 
beautiful and impressive. 

The lakes of Armenia are a bit of 
magic, spread as they are throughout the 
country like jewels. The loveliest in Ar- 


IN ARMENIA 


139 


menia is Lake Van, a vision surpassing all 
other lakes in beauty and splendor. It is 
situated 5,000 feet above sea level, em¬ 
bosomed in the center of a verdant and 
rich plain, which in turn is girdled by an 
extraordinary, romantic, and undulating 
mountain chain. Lake Van is always en¬ 
chanting Armenian poets and artists as 
well as the foreign travelers. 

The climate of Armenia is very health¬ 
ful, and conducive to longevity. The win¬ 
ter, cold and severe, lasts from the middle 
of October until the beginning of May. 
The air is dry, pure, and agreeable 
throughout the whole year. 

Besides its physical beauty, Armenia is 
rich in natural resources—oil, gold, silver, 
copper, tin, lead, coal, et cetera. God 
created all these things for man’s use, but 
unfortunately, the Turkish government is 
ignorant, lacking in enterprise, and un¬ 
mindful of the country’s welfare, because 
of which neglect all these treasures of the 
soil are going to waste. 


140 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


In Argheni Maden there is a copper 
mine where the copper runs to waste in 
solution. In 1920, when there was talk of 
America taking the mandate for Armenia, 
General Harbard went there to make a 
survey of the country. During his visit, 
he came upon the copper mines of Argheni 
Maden (a little distance away from my 
native city, Palou). His engineer dipped 
a bunch of iron keys into the running 
copper solution, held them there for a 
moment ; then taking them out again, he 
saw that all the keys were coated red with 
copper. This engineer figured that above 
three hundred dollars’ worth of copper in 
solution was going to waste every minute, 
day and night. For centuries this has 
continued, and is continuing to-day. 

There are places in Armenia where you 
could find traces of silver, gold, and coal, 
if you took pains to dig a few inches under 
the ground; but the Turkish government 
shows no interest whatever, and all this 
ore is going to waste. There is a saying 


IN ARMENIA 


141 


in the Bible: “ Neither cast your pearls 
before swine, lest they trample them under 
their feet and turn again and rend you.” 

No one is allowed to dig mines and 
utilize their resources. Any one attempt¬ 
ing it is severely punished by the Turkish 
government. The following is a true in¬ 
cident, which will serve as a good example 
to illustrate my point: 

An Armenian friend told me that his 
father was once traveling with a com¬ 
panion in Armenia from his home town to 
another town. On their way, being thirsty, 
they noticed a shining lake a little dis¬ 
tance away; thinking that they had found 
water, they hurried towards it. My 
friend’s father dipped his cup into the 
lake, and as he brought the full cup to his 
lips, what do you think he found it con¬ 
tained? Oil! Although disappointed, and 
still thirsty, he hurried with a cupful of 
the oil to the Turkish government, telling 
them of the discovery. Did the Turkish 
government give him a reward? No, but 


142 


WHEN I IWLS A BOY 


they gave him three months in jail, and 
whipped his companion for being an 
accomplice. 

That is what happens to any one desir¬ 
ing to be of service to these terrible, ig¬ 
norant Turks. 

I shall speak in the following pages of 
our history. A separate volume would be 
required to give the long chains of Ar¬ 
menian dynasties. I shall, however, give 
my reader a brief survey of Armenian his¬ 
tory which I think will be interesting and 
instructive. 

In language and history, the Armenians 
call themselves Hoik or Hayer, and their 
country Hay as dan. They take this name 
from the first great founder of the Ar¬ 
menian nation, Haig, who fought against 
Belus, King of Assyria in 1277 b. c., and 
killed him in battle. The story runs as 
follows: 

Belus, King of Assyria, sent word to 
Haig, who was residing in the north, to 
come and live with him under his roof. 


IN ARMENIA 


143 


Upon Haig’s refusal, Belus gathered all 
his forces and formed a great army, 
marching north to fight and subdue him. 
But Haig also got busy and organized all 
his relatives, about three hundred in num¬ 
ber, then went forward to meet Belus half¬ 
way. In the battlefield, Haig set his men 
in the shape of a wedge, while he, him¬ 
self, stood at the foremost point. Belus, 
thinking Haig to be alone, advanced 
upon him unaccompanied. When he was 
but a short distance away from Haig, 
he fell down pierced through by one of 
Haig’s arrows. Upon the death of their 
leader, the Assyrian army retreated in 
tumult and disorder. Then Haig, open¬ 
ing the two arms of the wedge, enveloped 
the Assyrians, and chased them to their 
boundaries, soundly beaten. This, then, 
is the tradition in history that moved the 
Armenians into calling themselves Haik. 

According to other writers, Armenians 
take their names from their brave and wise 
Armenian king, Armenag. Furthermore, 


144 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


Bishop Toorian, a very learned man, 
says that Armenians take their names 
from the region where they lived for cen¬ 
turies. This region is found between the 
mountains of Ararat and Meni. 

Whatever may be the origin of the 
name Armenian,' however, it remains a 
historical fact that Armenians have lived 
in Armenia for over 2,500 years, un¬ 
der rule of many kings and dynasties. 
There was a time in history (46 b. c.) 
when Armenians, under their most famous 
king, Dikran, who is called “ the King of 
Kings,” conquered the whole of Asia 
Minor, but, unfortunately, being forced 
to fight with the Persians in the north, the 
Arabs in the south, and especially the 
Romans in the west, he was unable to 
keep his kingdom intact. After him, vari¬ 
ous kingdoms sprang into existence, and 
we have been able to keep Cilicia, or 
Lesser Armenia, which was lost to the 
Arabs in 1273 a. d. The last king of 
Armenia, Leon VI, died in Paris. 


IN ARMENIA 


145 


During the entire period of our history, 
our country has stood on the cross-roads 
of civilization; Armenians have fought 
against the Persians, the Assyrians, the 
Arabs, the Tartars, the Greeks, and the 
Romans. Before the fall of the Armenian 
kingdom in Cilicia, while the Armenians 
were fighting the Arabs, there came the 
great onslaught of the Turkish nomadic 
hordes from Turkestan, before whose 
sword and fire everything withered and 
vanished. Since the fifteenth century, 
Armenia has been divided among the Per¬ 
sians, Turks, and Russians, and Arme¬ 
nians have lived under the rule of these 
three governments. During this period, 
Armenians have waged bitter fights and 
struggles to regain their freedom and in¬ 
dependence, to establish their old and 
glorious kingdom. Bitter has been the 
struggle, and still more bitter their disap¬ 
pointment and disillusionment. 

Before the War there were Armenian 
cities in Turkish Armenia which did not 


146 


WHEN I WAS A BOY, 


recognize the Turkish authority, did not 
pay taxes, and lived an independent life 
by themselves. The name Zeytoon , a 
mountainous village in Cilicia, shall remain 
immortal in the annals of Armenian his¬ 
tory for its bravery, courage, and valor. 

As much admiration may be given 
Adana, Sis, Moosh, Had jin, and Sasoun. 

In 1919, after the armistice, having been 
disappointed by the Allies, the Armenians 
took possession of a portion of Armenia 
in the Caucasus. To-day Armenians have 
an independent republic, 25,000 kilometers 
in area. Since 1920 Armenians have built 
many schools and a university. They have 
irrigated the land, drained the swamps, 
ploughed the fields, built canals and dams, 
and increased the agricultural product of 
the country in such manner as to invite 
the envy of all neighboring countries. 

We began anew at the foot of Mount 
Ararat. Let us hope that we can keep 
our country intact and well protected 
against the enemy! 



The “Lion of Daron.” 
With his Two Sons (The “Cubs/’) 






CHAPTER XIV 


THE ARMENIAN RACE, LANGUAGE, AND 

RELIGION 

Since my arrival in the United States, 
I have come in contact with many, not 
only schoolboys, but mature, and even 
educated persons who did not know who 
the Armenians were, or to what racial 
stock of mankind they belonged. The 
United States of America being the most 
cosmopolitan country in the world, it is 
both advisable and helpful to know 
every people living in this country. The 
following pages will, I hope, throw a 
sufficient light upon this question, and 
equip the reader with the necessary knowl¬ 
edge about Armenians as a race. 

The fact that Armenia is geographically 
located in Asia Minor has given rise, in 
the minds of some people, to the wrong 

impression that the Armenians are an 

147 


148 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


Asiatic people. Many Americans have 
considered the Armenians identical with 
the Greeks, Persians, Bulgarians, Rou¬ 
manians, Syrians, and Jews; still others 
have thought of the Armenians as “ Chris¬ 
tianized Turks.” What an appalling 
ignorance! 

Armenians are none of these. They 
differ from them all in race, language, re¬ 
ligion, and racial characteristics. The 
reader will ask, then, “ Who are the Ar¬ 
menians? ” 

In answer to this question I will state 
that the testimony of the world’s greatest 
historians, philologists, and anthropolo¬ 
gists has proved scientifically, beyond any 
question or doubt, that the Armenians be¬ 
long to the Aryan race, which is divided 
into three branches: (1) the Nordic, (2) 
the Alpine, (3) the Mediterranean. Ar¬ 
menians belong to the Denarian family of 
the Alpine branch. The original home of 
the Alpine branch of the white race is 
Central Europe. Of the three branches 


IN ABM ENT A 


149 


of the Aryan race, according to the best 
anthropologists, the Alpine type has been 
the most adventurous, the most warlike, 
and the most conquering; this type has 
contributed more to existing civilization 
than the other two branches. 

Armenians, let it be repeated for em¬ 
phasis, belong to the same racial stock as 
the English, the French, and the Ger¬ 
mans. Just as the white man supplanted 
the Indians in America, so the Armenians, 
centuries before the Christian era, mi¬ 
grated from eastern Europe into Asia 
Minor in search of better location, and 
established themselves in and around the 
region of Mount Ararat, where they built 
the kingdom of Armenia, and have been 
living for over two thousand five hundred 
years. 

We call ourselves Haik, and our coun¬ 
try Havasdan. Armenian is still another 
name for our people. There are many 
conjectures about the name “Armenian,” 
as I have said. The most plausible eth- 


150 WHEN I WAS A BOY 

nological statement is that our people took 
the name Armenian from the region where 
they lived—a region found between the 
mountains of Ararat and Meni. What¬ 
ever may be the origin of this name, the 
important fact for the reader to bear in 
mind is that we call ourselves Haik, our 
country Hayasdan, and our language 
Hayeren, that we belong to the Aryan 
race, and are not Asiatics. 

Armenian Language 

The Armenian language, too, in the 
opinion of world-famous philologists, is 
Indo-European in origin. Our alphabet 
has thirty-six characters; any foreign word 
can be spelled in Armenian without the 
need of putting two letters together in 
order to give the exact sound. Every let¬ 
ter in an Armenian word is pronounced; 
there are no superfluous letters in any 
word. Each letter has its own peculiar 
sound, and unlike English, for example, 
one letter has a different sound in different 


IN ARMENIA 


151 


places. Our alphabet has three b’s, three 
c’s, and three cl’s and two e’s, with soft, 
medium, and hard sounds, besides extra 
consonants which are not found in the 
English language. 

The characters of our alphabet do not 
look like those of other alphabets; some 
characters are borrowed from Greek and 
Assyrian alphabets, and the rest are 
original. Many English, German, French, 
and American people have learned the 
Armenian language. Lord Byron, the 
great English poet, learned the Armenian 
language, and was very fond of it; he mas¬ 
tered our language well enough so that he 
wrote an Armenian grammar, and trans¬ 
lated Armenian books into English. 

Literature 

We have our own distinctive literature; 
beautiful ballads, epic and lyric poetry; 
descriptive, expository, narrative prose, 
and drama. Our old manuscripts are rich 
with ancient treasures of thought. 


152 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


Art 

We have had many famous painters 
and sculptors. Recent excavations in Ar¬ 
menia have brought to light a rich store 
of Armenian architecture which has ex¬ 
cited the admiration of European artists. 

Religion 

Armenians were the first people to em¬ 
brace Christianity. They became Chris¬ 
tians in the year 301 a. d. They were 
the first people to make the Christian 
church a state church, which example was 
followed bv Constantine the Great of the 
Byzantine Empire. 

The following statement, which I took 
from the Boston Traveler , will throw more 
light upon this matter: 

May Prove Armenians First to 
Adopt Christianity 

Moscow, April 9 (1925).— (By the 
Associated Press).—Archaeological dis- 


IN ARMENIA 


153 

coveries of great importance, which it is 

declared may prove that the Armenians 
were the first people officially to adopt 
Christianity, are reported from Erivan, 
Russian Armenia, by the head of the 
American Near East relief mission to that 
city. 

At a village called Dovin, on the slopes 
of Mt. Ararat, there has been found the 
head of a life-size statue of an Armenian 
king, bearing a crown and earrings with 
the sign of the cross. These are pointed 
to as indicating that the king was a Chris¬ 
tian. 

Our mother church is called 44 the Ar¬ 
menian Apostolic Church,” in honor of its 
founders, Thaddeus and Bartholomew, the 
two apostles of Christ, who first came to 
Armenia to preach Christianity in 54 a. d. 
The Armenian Apostolic Church is dif¬ 
ferent from the Eastern Orthodox and 
Western Catholic Churches. The nearest 
church to it is the Episcopalian Church of 
England. Later on, however, in the four¬ 
teenth century, the Dominican Fathers, 
and in the seventeenth century, the Jesuits, 


154 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


introduced Catholicism; and in 1831 
Protestantism was introduced into Arme¬ 
nia by the American missionaries. To¬ 
day we have three separate churches: The 
Catholic Church, under the authority of 
the Pope of Rome, the Protestant Church, 
under the leadership of the American 
Missionary Board, and the Armenian 
Apostolic Church, under the guardianship 
of the Armenian Catholicos at Etch- 
miadzin, in Greater Armenia. 

Before the world war, there were about 
150,000 Armenian Protestants, about the 
same number of Catholics, while the great 
bulk of the people still adhered to their 
own church. 

The Racial Question in America 

Recently a prominent government of¬ 
ficial in Portland, Oregon, caused a great 
deal of trouble for himself by calling a 
leading Armenian rug-dealer in that 
city “ Asiatic,” and attempted to deny 
him the right of citizenship. The Ar- 


IN ARMENIA 


155 


menian brought suit against this Ameri¬ 
can gentleman, and the case was brought 
in court for decision. The question took 
on greater dimensions, and centered upon 
the point whether Armenians were Euro¬ 
pean or Asiatic. 

In the court were a German anthropol¬ 
ogist, and Professor Dixon of Harvard, 
and Professor Boas of Columbia Univer¬ 
sity, two of the greatest anthropologists in 
America. These three professors, as well 
as others in the court, testified in behalf of 
the Armenians, and proved the fact, based 
upon scientific evidence, that Armenians, 
although living in Asia Minor, are white 
by blood, and belong to the Alpine branch 
of the Aryan race. The German anthro¬ 
pologist openly stated in court that he 
would gladly give his daughter, if he had 
one, in marriage to an Armenian, and vice 
versa. After a long discussion, the United 
States Court learned from Professors 
Dixon and Boas that Armenians belonged 
to the Aryan race, and were eligible to citi- 


156 


WHEN I WA >Sf A BOY 


zenship. Being at last thoroughly con¬ 
vinced of the fact, the court dismissed the 
case. 

Below I give a clipping from the Bos¬ 
ton Post of July 29, 1925, which is the 
final ruling of the court on this question: 


A Sensible Ruling 

By ruling that Armenians are eligible 
to naturalization in the United States, 
Federal Judge Wolverton, of Portland, 
Oregon, unites common sense with an 
understanding knowledge of the racial his¬ 
tory of these people. 

The government held that the Ar¬ 
menians were not eligible to become citi¬ 
zens because they were Asiatics. In a 
strictly geographical sense they are, but 
technically they are not. They are a very 
old branch of the Aryan stock and are re¬ 
lated to the “ Alpine ” stock in Europe. 
They have been Christians since 285 a. d. 
They have maintained their racial, social 
and religious solidarity during all the 
centuries since. And they are whites. 

Some of our finest citizens and mer¬ 
chants are Armenians. To refuse such 


IN ARMENIA 


151 


men the right of citizenship seems ill- 
advised and unjust. We hope and believe 
that the government will lose its appeal to 
the Supreme Court. 

Armenians, although of darker com¬ 
plexion than Americans, are white by race. 
Their dark complexion is due to climatic 
conditions, and the influence of the coun¬ 
try where they live. In Armenia, you 
may see many blond people with fair skin 
and blue eyes. As a matter of fact, my 
father had blond hair, brown eyes, and a 
very fair complexion. Armenians feel 
themselves akin to Europeans; in Europe 
as well as in America they are easily as¬ 
similated with the white race; they go to 
American churches, marry Americans 
(there are many Americans who have 
married Armenian girls), and feel at 
home with the Americans. Incidentally, 
it was an Armenian, named Dr. Seropian, 
who invented the fast-green color which 
you see on the American paper dollar, and 
the first American soldier to land in 


158 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


Manila during the Spanish-American war 
was also an Armenian. 

Given equal freedom and privileges, 
Armenians would prove worthy rivals of 
any nation in the world, in industry as 
well as intellectual activity. They com¬ 
mand all the intelligence, energy, and 
virtues of the best European stock, be¬ 
cause they are a branch of the same root. 
Lord Cromwell called the Armenians 
“the intellectual cream of the East;” 
others have called them “ the Anglo- 
Saxons of the East,” and still others “ the 
Frenchmen of the East.” 

Armenians have for centuries been the 
standard-bearers and guardians of the 
civilization of the West against the un¬ 
couth Asiatic barbarians; it is for this rea¬ 
son that Gladstone said, “ To serve Ar¬ 
menia is to serve civilization! ” But alas! 
his words fell on barren ground, and his 
voice, like a resonant echo, died in the 
tumult of self-seeking interests of great 
European nations. 



1 J 


A Girl Soldier. 

Miss Dikranian, the “One-Woman Army 








CHAPTER XV 


MY COMING TO THE UNITED STATES OF 

AMERICA 

After four years of monastic educa¬ 
tion, I revolted against the secluded and 
sedentary life I was leading. My blood 
surged within my veins; I longed for ad¬ 
venture, and I decided to get out into the 
world. 

One day, soon after my decision, I went 
to see the abbot of the monastery. While 
in his presence, I told him frankly that 
I did not care to stay in the monastery 
any longer, that I was going into the world 
to seek my fortune. 

Upon these words, he looked at me in 
surprise and said, “ My boy, we are get¬ 
ting old, and soon we must depart from 
this world. It is your duty to stay here 
and take our places in order to guard the 
old manuscripts and serve the church. 


160 


WEEN I WAS A BOY 


You are young and inexperienced; you do 
not know the world. How do you dare 
go out into it alone? You will be sorry 
if you leave. This much I have to say.” 

His advice was well-meant and prac¬ 
tical, but I had decided, and could not be 
deterred from my decision. Seeing this, 
he gave me his permission, and blessed me. 
Whereupon I kissed his hand, bowed, and 
left. 

Hardly a week had passed, when in the 
clear dawn of a May morning I packed 
up my belongings and left the monastery 
on a caravan. I wept over the farewells. 
It was very hard for me to leave the 
monastery; I had grown so accustomed to 
it. 

In one day by caravan, we reached 
Adana, my home town. Here I stayed 
with my relatives for a week, then left for 
Europe from Mersin. Being born in an 
inland country, and for the first time see¬ 
ing the ocean, I was greatly amazed at its 
vastness. When I first entered a small 


IN ARMENIA 


161 


boat which carried us to the steamer, I 
had a queer sensation; I thought the whole 
earth was shaking beneath my feet; the 
boat was paddled by six men, who wore 
garments of much color. 

Our steamer first touched at Smyrna, 
the birthplace of Homer. Smyrna is 
built on a hill, very beautiful at night 
when all the houses are lighted. From 
Smyrna I went to Constantinople, where 
I changed my mind, and decided instead 
of going to Europe, I wanted to see Egypt 
first. So I took another boat to Egypt, 
which steamer landed at Alexandria. Fas- 
cinating Egypt, about which I had read 
so much! Picturesque Arabs with bare 
feet in scanty though colorful clothing! 

During my stay in Alexandria, I met 
a young man from my home town, Adana. 
You can well imagine how delighted we 
both were to see each other in a foreign 
land. This young man, who was older 
than I, coaxed me into joining him; he 
was on his way to the United States. 


162 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


Being adventurous, I agreed with him 
at once. Three days later, as I was read¬ 
ing a book in the garden of an Armenian 

r 

church, my friend came to me in haste and 
told me to buy my ticket to New York. 
I closed my book and hastened to the ticket 
office, then ran to the steamer. 

At the dock I waited and waited for 
this young man, but he did not appear. 
The steamer whistle blew its farewell. I 
was in an agony of perplexity and embar¬ 
rassment. Should I take the boat alone 
or wait for my friend? Soon, however, 
I made up my mind and got on the 
steamer; as soon as I arrived, the gang¬ 
plank was pulled up. I leaned against 
the steamer rail still hoping and waiting 
for my friend to appear. Suddenly I saw 
him running towards the steamer shaking 
his hands in the air. Seeing that the plank 
was already pulled up and the steamer 
ready to leave, he hastily wrote on a scrap 
of paper his cousin’s address—a rug- 
merchant in New York City—and firmly 


IN ARMENIA 


163 


wrapped it round a piece of stone, then 
threw it to me into the boat. Unfortu¬ 
nately, the stone did not travel far enough 
and fell into the ocean, together with the 
address; and his second attempt found our 
steamer already moving off. He shouted 
in a loud voice that he would join me in 
New York City with the arrival of the 
next boat, and that he was very sorry for 
this unfortunate incident. 

The steamer was now ploughing its way 
through the Mediterranean Sea, traveling 
farther and faster every minute, until soon 
my friend and the shore of Egypt had 
rolled away and disappeared from view. 
Now I began looking around to see if I 
could find any one I knew. In vain! 
Some people were sitting in steamer-chairs 
on deck, while others were walking and 
talking—they were all strangers to me. 
I walked to the forward deck of the ship 
and leaning on the farthermost end, I 
watched the huge, red, glorious sun of the 
Egyptian skies sink into the immensity 


164 WHEN I WAS A BOY 

of the sea. Such a beautiful sunset! I 
was completely absorbed, forgetting every¬ 
thing around me. 

But soon I came to myself, and the 
thought came that I was going to a 
strange country where I did not know 
anybody. I decided to face all dangers 
and obstacles with as much coolness and 
common sense as I could muster. En¬ 
gaged in these thoughts, I began to walk 
back on deck. As I was passing by 
people sitting in chairs, I saw a gray¬ 
haired woman lying in one of the steamer 
chairs with her eyes closed; she was mur¬ 
muring, “ Somebody, please, give me a 
glass of water.” I knew she was sea-sick. 
I picked up the glass next to her chair 
and brought her water. After she drained 
the tumbler she opened her eyes and said, 
“ Thank you, God bless you, my boy. 
Who are you? Where are you going? 
Where are your parents? ” 

I told her my story, and after she heard 
it, she said, “ Sit in this chair by my side, 


IN ARMENIA 


165 


my boy; from now on you are my son. 
You will be under my protection; I will 
see that you arrive in America safely. See, 
I have enough money,” and she began 
pulling out some French bank-notes and 
Egyptian securities from the inside pocket 
of her jacket, and then jingled her belt so I 
could hear the English pounds sterling in 
gold. I sat by her side in the chair, and 
soon after became acquainted with other 
Armenians who were going to the United 
States, and who praised my courage and 
determination. 

From Alexandria, Egypt, I arrived in 
Naples, Italy. From this beautiful city, 
I saw the gray smoke of Vesuvius, the 
famous volcanic mountain of Italy, and 
the lovely village skirting the side of the 
Adriatic shining under the bright sun of 
Italy. After a week’s stay in Italy, we 
started for the States. 

On the way to America, our steamer 
passed through the Straits of Gibraltar, 
where I saw the fortifications and stately 


166 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


rocks of Gibraltar, majestically rising out 
of the ocean at the junction of the At¬ 
lantic and the Mediterranean Sea. 

We were not three days from New 
York when I saw a slender stream of 
water rising against the sky in the middle 
of the ocean. 

“What is this strange phenomenon?” 
I asked one of my friends. 

“ That is a whale, emptying water from 
his mouth by shooting it out through the 
upper opening of his head.” 

“ How strange,” I said to myself. 

This was something new to me, and I 
was very anxious to see the whale. The 
man assured me that we would see one 
soon. This was true, for after a little while 
I saw this huge mammal approaching our 
ship. I was told that a big whale could 
turn a ship over. 

Soon we were upon it, a huge, black 
sea monster with large, wide mouth and 
small eyes, gracefully rolling in the ocean 
now on his head, now on his sides, never 


IN ARMENIA 


167 


launching his entire body in full sight. 
He came nearer and nearer. My friend 
dispersed my fears by telling me that we 
were protected by a sharp-edged strip 
of metal which ran along the keel of 
the boat. I began to observe the whale 
more carefully, intensely interested in all 
his motions. It was a strange sight; I can 
never forget it. 

After the whale disappeared into the 
depths of the ocean, I went to the bow of 
the ship and looked down into the sea. 
I saw many swordfish that had been rac¬ 
ing with our ship for hours; when they 
tire, they disappear. I was told that some 
of them would race with the ship until 
they became exhausted and died. 

Two days later, early in the morning, 
just before daybreak, we arrived in New 
York. First, I saw the lights of New 
York shining brightly in the summer’s 
clear sky. I said to myself over and over, 
“ We are in the New World discovered 
by Columbus in 1492! Will it be an en- 


168 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


tirely different land in all its aspects from 
the old world I have left behind? ” 

With the first lights of daybreak, I saw 
the outlines of the Statue of Liberty take 
form, becoming clearer and clearer as 
the night gave way to day, and then be¬ 
fore us stood this goddess of America with 
a torch in her hands—a most impressive 
sight. My pulse began to beat faster, and 
my heart was filled with an inarticulate 
hope. I was in a new world; new and 
strange things was I going to see! 

After breakfast, tugboats began to 
plough the New York harbor towards our 
steamer to carry our passengers to Ellis 
Island. When the boats neared our 
steamer, I saw a large, tall, and good- 
looking American standing on the deck, 
crying out in a loud voice, “ All right! ” 
These were the first English words I heard 
when I arrived in America. I was familiar 
with them, hence did not feel myself quite 
so much a stranger. 

My first impressions of America left me 


IN ARMENIA 


169 


very excited. Soon I passed the required 
examination at Ellis Island and had 
landed in New York safely. The first 
thing that attracted my attention was the 
hurry and hustle of the people, the quick, 
nervous activity of the workers at the rail¬ 
road station, the noise and turmoil of the 
multitude. All this took me by great sur¬ 
prise ! 

Being booked to Boston, we took our 
train to that city. But scarcely a month 
had passed before I began to long for the 
quiet and restful atmosphere of my native 
country, and I had about decided to buy 
a ticket and return to the old country 
when I met an Armenian doctor who, 
upon hearing my story, counselled me to 
stay. “ My boy, you are vigorous, lively, 
and ambitious. This is the right place for 
you. You will regret leaving the United 
States. Stay here; you will soon get used 
to the place; besides, you can receive the 
best of education right here.” 

He took me with him on a street-car to 


170 


WHEN I WAS A BOY 


his home.* While we were passing through 
Cambridge, he pointed out Harvard Col¬ 
lege and said: 

“ Do you see those red-brick buildings? 
They belong to Harvard University. 
Great men have come out of that institu¬ 
tion.” 

His remarks filled me with pride, and a 
desire to stay, and I determined to con¬ 
quer in remaining. 

I am glad to be here. I have become a 
citizen, determined to make my home in 
this land. 

God save our country—the great, glori¬ 
ous United States of America! 










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